14 Facts About Archimede Mischi

Archimede Mischi was an Italian Blackshirt general during World War II.

Archimede Mischi was born in Forli on March 26,1885, the son of Ulisse Mischi and Rosa Silvagni.

Archimede Mischi was promoted to lieutenant in July 1909, and starting from September 1912 he fought in Libya with the grenadiers battalion, returning to Italy in July 1913.

Archimede Mischi was then assigned to the 19th Infantry Regiment and promoted to captain in December 1914, and in the following January he was transferred to the 142nd Infantry Regiment of the Catanzaro Infantry Brigade, where he was when the Kingdom of Italy entered the First World War on May 24,1915.

Archimede Mischi was hospitalized and on 25 November he was promoted to lieutenant colonel; after recovering, on 3 July 1917 he was posted in Genoa, but his precarious health conditions forced him to a prolonged stay at the physiotherapy center of the VII Army Corps, which lasted from 14 August 1918 to 6 December 1919.

Archimede Mischi was promoted to colonel on 2 February 1927, and on 27 April 1927 he joined the Volunteer Militia for National Security with the rank of console, assuming command of the 171st Blackshirt Legion "Vespri di Palermo".

Archimede Mischi requested to be sent to the front in Libya to participate in the operations against the Senussi rebels, but his request was rejected.

Archimede Mischi was later promoted to luogotenente generale of the MVSN on 21 June 1937, and Major General of the Army in November; in December 1937 he assumed the position of Inspector of the Blackshirts in Italian East Africa while holding the command of the 6th Blackshirt Mixed Brigade "Tevere".

Shortly after the fall of Fascism, on 9 August 1943, Archimede Mischi resigned from his post as commander of the Border Militia and was placed at the disposal of the general command of the MVSN.

On January 2,1944 Archimede Mischi was appointed chairman of the commission tasked with reviewing the former officers of the Royal Italian Army who wanted to pass through the newly established National Republican Army.

Archimede Mischi thus spent the remainder of the war fighting the partisans in Piedmont, while continuing to maintain relations with the commanders of the other military areas, and trying to maintain the unity of direction of the various ENR units through a series of inspections, the last of which he held at the end of March 1945, inspecting the troops deployed along the Adriatic coast.

Archimede Mischi opposed the idea of the Valtellina Redoubt, and in the days of the collapse of the Italian Social Republic he retreated from Milan to Lecco, where on 25 April 1945 he attempted suicide by cutting his wrists at the Albergo Moderno.

Archimede Mischi was tried by the Special Court of Assizes of Turin for a series of war crimes related to his activity in Italian Social Republic, committed by troops under his command in Piedmont; he however successfully raised doubts about the impartiality of that tribunal and on 3 June 1947 he obtained the transfer of his case to the Court of Assizes of Rome.

Archimede Mischi was then imprisoned in the military prison of Forte Boccea until January 1950, when he was released.