ITALY'S SUPREME HERO.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 February 1916, Page 7

ITALY'S SUPREME HERO.

"A STUDENT OF DEATH." MAGNETIC EFFECT ON HIS MEN. (J. M. N. Jeffries in London Daily Mail). Northern Italy, November 1. There is in Italy no exact equivalent of the Victoria Cross, no single supreme decoration for acts of courage. The "Medaglia al Valore Military" (medal for mlitary valor) is divided into several classes. Nevertheless, the first class of these, the medal of which is in gold, is so rarely, granted that it carries with it an extraordinary prestige.

It has now been conferred for the first time in the course of the present war upon Sottenentenete (second lieutenant) Decio Raggi, of the 11th Infantry of the Line, who was a doctor in civil life. It can only, alas! be laid upon his tomb, for the courage which won him the medal won him at the same time a soldier's death. He died on Podgora, on that rough hill opposite Corizia which is generally called Podgora, but is in reality named Calvario | (Calvary), on whose summit were three crosses, to reach which he time and again led his men on, with all a martyr's foreknowledge of -his end. It was while he was leading them to the assault of an Austrian trench that lie was 6hot down on the brink of it. He had reached it, after miraculously passing lines of wire, some ten yards in advance of his soldiers. The soldiers behind him hesitated a moment. It was then that he jumped on to the broad parapet of the trench, and, making no effort to use any weapon, irrevocably sacrificed his life by standing there, a point-blank mark to a line of enemcies, and—as lie had hoped—with a wild cry of ''Forward! Romagno.!'' in the moment J before he died drawing the conquering impetus oft of his men. I

VALIANT SUPREME EXAMPLE. This action was tho culminating one of several such on the slopes of Calvario in the desperate fighting of July. On every occasion he lia,d gone before his troops, magnetising them, drawing thorn on, and offering his own life as a light payment for the result. So regular and methodical were these variant forward rushes of his that it may almost be said of him that he studied for death. He left the following memorable testament:— "While the venerated 'Majesty of Victor Emmanuel III.," he wrote, "with fatherly regard purposes to< unite all our race in one family behind "their natural frontiers, I from Capriva on this second of July, 1013, declare, to my dear ones these my last wishes.

"0 youth of Italy! envy my liappy lot. In the liol.v name of God and in the hope of a better life, for the greatness and unity and honor of our country, for the liberty and independence of my oppressed brethren, in the sacred name of Italy, in the love ontl 'through the lore of all that is Italian, I die blessed.

'Neither toils, nor dangers, nor hunger. nor thirst, nor lon;,' watching, nor privation have ever shaken my faith in our just national aspirations or my love for down-trodden Italians, or my liate for the old or new tyrants, our oppressors. Do yon, then, who hold mo dear, not abandon yourselves to useless regrets, but cultivate such love for me as my soul will still maintain for you. I beg forgiveness from those I have done ill to, h.s I forgive any who have done ill to mej( . . Deeid Raggi was, as has been stated, a doctfor by profession", but he had been called to the army as a reserve officer and a j combatant. Ho was born in 1884 at Savignano, near Forli, and was buried,; as he wished, in the little graveyard nisar his home, near by which flows the stream of the Rubicon, fittingly close to one who so readily took his owa wernal decision.