Giuseppe Cervo (1887–1916), from Bes, is one of the soldiers of the parish of Salce remembered by Armando Dal Pont in the series Per non dimenticarli…. His story connects an emigrant’s working life with war and death at sea on the return journey from Albania.
From Bes to the 55th Infantry Regiment
According to the account in Col Maòr, Giuseppe was born on 6 August 1887 to Michele Cervo and Angela Fiabane. He was unmarried, worked as a labourer and had experienced emigration to Austria and Switzerland.
During the First World War he served in the 55th Infantry Regiment of the Marche Brigade. Dal Pont recalls that during its four months in Albania, the unit was not involved in fighting and also worked on the construction of civilian infrastructure.
The Sinking of the Principe Umberto
On 8 June 1916 part of the 55th Regiment embarked at Valona on the steamship Principe Umberto, bound for Italy. That evening the ship was torpedoed and sank. Giuseppe Cervo was among the men who lost their lives.
Dal Pont’s research attributes the attack to the Austrian navy’s submarine U5 and records the award to Giuseppe of two commemorative medals for the 1915–1918 war. The account gives no burial place, so no reconstruction based on conjecture is offered here.
Source of the Account
An original account based on the research of Armando Dal Pont, “PER NON DIMENTICARLI… Soldati della parrocchia di Salce caduti in guerra”, Col Maòr, Year XLI, No. 3, December 2004, p. 4. The public copy gives a printing date of 10 December 2004. Read the original issue.
The biographical and military details summarised here are attributed to the local research published in 2004; no new military service documents or original naval registers were consulted for this account.
