1. Prince Dimitri Zedginidze-Amilakhvari, more commonly known as Dimitri Amilakhvari was a French military officer of noble Georgian descent and Lieutenant Colonel of the French Foreign Legion.
11 Facts About Dimitri Amilakhvari
1. 2.
The house of Zedginidze-Dimitri Amilakhvari had formerly served as hereditary Master of the Horse to the Georgian Crown and retained their princely dignity during the Imperial Russian rule of Georgia.
3.
In 1924, Dimitri Amilakhvari entered the Ecole Speciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr and was commissioned as a second lieutenant after his graduation in 1926.
4.
Dimitri Amilakhvari later served in French North Africa and took part in all important operations in the south of Morocco from 1932 to 1933.
5.
Dimitri Amilakhvari fought at Narvik and was then evacuated to the United Kingdom, where he joined the Free French Forces.
6.
Dimitri Amilakhvari then took part in the unhappy campaigns against the Vichy French forces in West Africa, at Dakar, and Equatorial Africa, in Cameroun.
7.
Dimitri Amilakhvari's next move took him halfway round the continent to Eritrea, in East Africa, to join the East African Campaign against Italy in early 1941, but by the summer he was on the move again, to take part in another campaign against Vichy France, in Syria.
8.
Dimitri Amilakhvari then assumed command of the 13th Demi-Brigade of the Foreign Legion on 6 September 1941.
9.
In 1942, Dimitri Amilakhvari was back in North Africa, facing the German and Italian forces in Libya as part of the North African Campaign.
10.
However, Dimitri Amilakhvari did not live to complete his great African odyssey, as he was killed in action on the second day of the battle.
11.
In May 1940, Dimitri Amilakhvari was awarded a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour.