Emilio De Bono  Emilio De Bono (19 March 1866 – 11 January 1944) was an Italian General, fascist activist, Marshal, and member of the Fascist Grand Council ("Gran Consiglio del Fascismo"). De Bono fought in the Italo-Turkish War, World War I, and the Second Italo-Abyssinian War. De Bono was born in Cassano d'Adda. Son of Giovanni de Bono, descendant of the Counts of Barlassina, and Elisa Bazzi. His family ""suffered under the Austrian yoke"". He entered the Italian Royal Army ("Regio Esercito") in 1884 as a Second Lieutenant and had worked his way up to General Staff by the start of the Italo-Turkish War of 1911. De Bono would later to go on to fight in World War I, where he distinguished himself against the Austrians in Gorizia in 1916 and Monte Grappa in October 1918. In 1920, he was discharged with the rank of Major General. During the early 1920s, De Bono helped organize the National Fascist Party. In 1922, as one of the four Quadrumvirs, he organized and staged the "March on Rome." This event signalled the start of the Fascist regime in Italy. In the period following the march, De Bono served as Chief of Police and Commander of the Fascist Militia. In 1925, De Bono was tried for his role in the 1924 death of the leftist politician Giacomo Matteotti. He refused to implicate his superiors and was unexpectedly acquitted in 1925. Later that year, De Bono was appointed Governor of Tripolitania in Libya. In 1929, De Bono was appointed Minister of Colonial Affairs (also referred to as the Minister of Colonies). In 1932, King Victor Emmanuel and De Bono visited Eritrea and found, they said, a peaceful, loyal, and contented colony. In November 1932, at Prime Minister Benito Mussolini's request, De Bono wrote a plan for an invasion of Ethiopia. The plan outlined a traditional mode of penetration: a relatively small force would move gradually southward from Eritrea, establish strong bases and then advance against increasingly weak and disorganized opponents. The invasion De Bono envisioned would be cheap, easy, safe, – and slow. Mussolini separately involved the Army in planning and, over the next two years, the Army developed its own massive campaign which would involve five to six times the number of troops required by De Bono.