Luigi Frusci was born in Venosa in 1879 and soon enlisted in the Italian Army. He fought during
World War I and -after
Benito Mussolini took control of Italy- he enrolled in the
National Fascist Party. Frusci fought on the southern front for General
Rodolfo Graziani during the
Second Italo-Abyssinian War. In April 1936, during the
Battle of the Ogaden, Frusci commanded the center column of three columns attacking the Ethiopian "Hindenburg Wall". Later Frusci was the commander of the Italian "volunteers" of the
2nd CCNN Division "Fiamme Nere" in the Corps of Volunteer Troops (
Corpo Truppe Volontarie) during the
Spanish Civil War in 1937 and 1938. In 1939, Frusci become
Governor of Amhara in northern Ethiopia, and later governor of
Italian Eritrea until 1941. During World War II, Frusci was the main military commander in the Italian
Eritrea Governorate. As a Lieutenant-General, he commanded Italian forces fighting in
Eritrea during the
East African Campaign. He fought in the
Italian conquest of British Somaliland, conquering the capital
Berbera. In mid-1940, Frusci oversaw the initial Italian attacks into the
Sudan, conquering
Kassala. Later in 1940, even when ordered to do so, he chose not pull out of the Sudan. Instead, he rebuffed the initial efforts of British and Commonwealth forces to retake the border towns. In November, an assault on
Gallabat was stopped short of its goals, the attacking force was hit hard from the air, and the position was re-taken by Italian ground forces. After the British and Commonwealth forces crossed the border and launched an offensive in January 1941, Frusci also oversaw the defensive actions at
Agordat,
Keren, and the rest of Eritrea. With the fall of Eritrea, Frusci became a prisoner of war. In 1948 Frusci received from the Italian government the award "Commendatore dell'Ordine Militare d'Italia". Frusci died in 1949 at his hometown of
Venosa, in
Basilicata. ==Command history==