WE MIGHT NEVER HAVE HEARD OF ERNEST HEMINGWAY HAD IT NOT been for an Italian soldier who was killed taking the brunt of the exploding mortar on the July night in 1918. But it seems little or no effort has been made to identify the soldier, whose death made possible the life of a young man who would eventually become one of the major writers of the twentieth century.
According to Italian military records, these are the names of the eighteen men who died or went missing in combat along the Piave River on July 8 or 9, 1918. If the records are correct, one of the names listed below is that of the soldier who lost his life and, in doing so, preserved that of Ernest Hemingway.
Soldier Michele Nudo
Soldier Giuseppe Artosi Ippolito
Soldier Luigi Sangalli
Soldier Pietro Boselli
Soldier Alfredo Fontanesi
Soldier Lorenzo Caprile
Soldier Giulio Chiesa
Soldier Domenico Quaglia
Soldier Fedele Temperini
Soldier Umberto Bicchieraro
Corporal Tomaso Dognini
Corporal Luigi Riccobono
Corporal Giuseppe Giambrone
Major General Alessandro Fadini Umberto
Sergeant Santino Barba
Lieutenant Doctor Corrado Varvaro
Sailor Domenico Nodari
Scholars or researchers interested in trying to identify the actual soldier’s name may contact the author for a copy of his research notes, which contain more details.