Guglielmo Pecori Giraldi

In February 1887 was transferred to the General Staff of the Army, and assigned to the African Special Corps of General Alessandro Asinari di San Marzano in Eritrea. In December 1891 he was promoted major of Infantry, and reassigned to the General Staff. In 1895 he returned in Africa, serving as a staff officer in the First Italo-Ethiopian War. While in the Eritrean colony he was promoted twice to the rank of Infantry Colonel.

In 1900 he was appointed Chief of Staff of the VII Army Corps, and three years later was again sent in Africa as commander of the Regio Corpo Truppe Coloniali (RCTC Royal Corps of Colonial Troops). Promoted Major General, from 1907 he commanded the Infantry brigades "Pisa" and "Cuneo". On the eve of the Libyan War he was promoted Lieutenant General and took command of the 1st Military Division in Messina.

After the outbreak of the Italo-Turkish War, the Kingdom of Italy sent in Libya an army corps, 34,000 men under the command of the seasoned general Carlo Caneva. The corps itself was formed by two divisions: Pecori Giraldi was appointed commander of one of them. During the fights for Tripoli, he led the right column in the successful Italian attack to Ain Zara, and in December 1911, was put in command of the conquered oasis' defenses. Wrongly informed about a group of local leaders who favored the Italians were being held captive in the nearby post of Bir Tobraz, he ordered colonel Gustavo Fara a sortie. The Italian column was trapped by Turks and local troops. Though he tried to blame Fara for this failure, he was questioned by a military commission and eventually relieved of command. He retired – or, as rumors said, forced to retire – at the end of the war. Although later cleared of all accusations, he was only listed among the Reserve officers.

In the spring of 1915 when Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary, he was recalled for duty and commanded first a division and later the VII Army Corps at the lower Isonzo river. On 8 May 1916 he assumed command of the Italian First Army to stop the Austrian-Hungarian Trentino Offensive. On 3 November 1918, in the wake of the Battle of Vittorio Veneto, he marched into Trento and occupied the city. He remained civil and military governor of Trentino-Alto Adige until December 1919.