He was born in Turin on March 28, 1891, the son of Paolo and Purma Dapino, and after enlisting in the
Royal Italian Army he was appointed as a
second lieutenant of the
Alpini. On 19 May 1912 he left for
Libya with the
7th Alpini Regiment, earning a
bronze medal for military valor during the
Italo-Turkish War. From 24 May 1915 he took part in the
Great War in a company of skiers fighting on the
Adamello, where he was wounded. In 1935 he fought in the
Second Italo-Ethiopian War. After returning to Italy, starting from 1937 he served in the 19th Infantry Regiment, and in January 1939, with the rank of
lieutenant colonel, he assumed command of the
8th Alpini Regiment, part of the
3rd Alpine Division "Julia". Dapino obtained from the Fifth Army a food table similar to the American one, but which did not include some kinds of comfort, such as wine and cigarettes; the Ministry of War in
Brindisi refused to provide these goods, since "this groupment carries out activities in favor of the Allies and is supplied by them". Dapino then declared that in the absence of supplies, he would buy them on his own initiative, and would continue to distribute comfort items "whenever the troops need it. Soldiers who live for several days in mountain positions, in the cold and rain, without being able to set up tent and cook their rations and being subjected to continuous fire by the enemy, and units that make strenuous nocturnal corvées to carry ammunition, food and water to the frontline, do not carry out activities in favor of the Allies but represent the only troops of the Italian Army that are currently fighting". After the end of the war he retired from active service, and died in July 1957. ==References==