Baron Amedeo Guillet (February 7, 1909 â June 16, 2010) was an officer of the Italian Army and an Italian Diplomat. Dying at the age of 101, he was one of the last men to have commanded cavalry in war. He was nicknamed Devil Commander and was famous during the Italian guerrilla war in Ethiopia in 1941, 1942 and 1943 because of his courage.
Guillet’s most important battle happened towards the end of January 1941 at Cherù when he attacked enemy armoured units. At the end of 1940, the Allied forces faced Guillet on the road to Amba Alagi, and specifically, in the proximity of Cherù. He had been entrusted, by Amedeo Duca d’Aosta, with the task of delaying the Allied advance from the north-west. The battles and skirmishes in which this young lieutenant was a protagonist (Guillet commanded an entire brigade, notwithstanding his low rank) are highlighted in the British bulletins of war. The “devilries” that he created from day to day, almost seen as a game, explains why the British called him not only “Knight from other times” but also the Italian “Lawrence of Arabia”. Horse charges with unsheathed sword, guns, and incendiary grenades against the armored troops had a daily cadence.
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