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History.
On Sept. 19, 1897, Giovanni Galati, the son of an artillery corps general, was born in Naples and began attending the Naval Academy in Livorno at the age of 15. Four years later Galati took official service with the Regia Marina with the rank of ensign and participated in the Italo-Turkish War at training ships. During World War I Galati initially took part in the conflict by serving on the ship RN Duilio, but on assigned for the remainder of the conflict to command a self-propelled pontoon boat that was to give support to ground troops: in doing so he earned a Silver Medal for military valor in 1918. After the war he was promoted as a lieutenant-lieutenant and was embarked first in Latin America and then in the Red Sea. Minor activities followed, but these earned him further promotions, and in 1936 the now frigate captain participated in the Abyssinian War on the RN Quarto.
With the same ship he participated in some actions during the Spanish Civil War, and with World War II Galati took command of the light cruiser Raimondo Montecuccoli since 1940. In 1942 he was sent to Tobruch and managed a light cruiser squadron. During this period he carried out various missions against Allied convoys.
With the armistice events of 1943, Galati refused to surrender his ships to the Allies and for this he was briefly arrested. After his release Galati immediately set out to try to send two torpedo boats to resupply the 33rd Infantry Division “Acqui” surrounded in Cephalonia by German enemy troops, but unfortunately his plans were dashed when the Allied authorities stopped the plan during implementation.
After the end of hostilities he remained in the Navy until 1955 (with the final rank of division admiral) and passed away on October 15, 1971.
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