Gold Medal: Angelo Gabrieli
Born in 1914 in Rocca Pietore (Belluno)
Corporal, reserve
4th Alpini Regiment
“Monte Cervino” Ski Battalion
80th Anti-tank Gun Company
Citation for the Gold Medal of Military Valour (posthumous):
Gun layer of an anti-tank gun, who had already distinguished himself for skill and courage in earlier actions, during an attack in force by enemy tanks he coolly waited for them to come within short range so as to hit them with certainty. Seriously wounded by a machine-gun burst, he refused to leave the gun and ordered his men to hold him up so that he could go on laying it. Despite his grave condition he managed to hit an enemy tank. Seeing that, although hit, it was still heading for the gun, he ordered his men to get away to safety while, with desperate energy, he reloaded and aimed the gun alone. From no more than two metres he fired, fatally striking the enemy tank, which, carried forward by its momentum, crushed the gun and its heroic gunner. A superb example of courage, selflessness and complete devotion to duty.
Seleny Yar (Russian front), 31 December 1942
Biographical notes:
A bricklayer by trade, in April 1935 he enlisted in the “Belluno” battalion of the 7th Alpini and in 1936 was discharged as a corporal. Recalled in September 1939 and assigned to the “Val Cordevole” battalion of the 4th Alpini “Valle” group, in June 1940 he took part in the operations on the western Alpine border and from January 1941 in those on the Greek-Albanian front and in the Balkans. Repatriated, at the end of the same year he was transferred to the “Monte Cervino” ski battalion of the 4th Alpini and assigned to the 80th anti-tank gun company; he left for Russia in April 1942.
(The citation and biographical notes are taken from the book «Le Medaglie d’Oro al valor militare», Gruppo Medaglie d’Oro al valor militare d’Italia, Rome 1965.)
Related article: The Sons of Belluno at War.
