Achille Starace (Italian pronunciation: [aˈkille staˈraːtʃe]; 18 August 1889 – 29 April 1945) was a prominent leader of Fascist Italy before and during World War II.

In 1922, Starace participated in the March on Rome (Marcia su Roma), leading a squad of Blackshirts (Camicie Nere, or CCNN) in support of Mussolini.

In 1923, after resigning as vice-secretary of the party, he was made commander of the National Security Volunteer Militia (Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale or MVSN) in Trieste.

As secretary, Starace staged huge parades and marches, proposed Anti-Semitic racial segregation measures, and greatly expanded Mussolini's cult of personality.

In 1935, Starace, a Colonel, took a leave of absence as PNF Party Secretary to participate in the Italian invasion of Ethiopia and fought on the northern front.

Before setting out, "the Panther Man" (L'uomo pantera) gave the following speech to his men: Soldiers, this is the most risky, most difficult and most important venture of the campaign.

The only way to explain the action of the English is that they thought they had only to mass a war fleet in the Mediterranean and Premier Mussolini would take off his hat and bow in submission.Instead he reared up like a thoroughbred horse and sent his soldiers into Africa.

The following morning, April 1, Starace and the column entered Gondar and two days later reached Lake Tana, securing the border region with British Sudan.

In 1936, Dino Grandi, the Italian Ambassador to Great Britain, appeared in London wearing a suit said to have been made from forty-eight pints of skimmed milk.

[2] During the Munich Crisis in 1938 which ended with Nazi Germany's annexation of the Sudetenland, Starace was a vocal proponent that the French should agree to cede Tunisia to Italy.

He is specially and more significantly remembered also for a policy of enrollment of the Italian people (either young or not) in Fascist party-linked organizations that bore some semblance to the Scout movement: Opera Balilla, Figli della lupa, Avanguardisti, Giovane fascista and the labour-related Organizzazione del Dopolavoro (after-work sports).

The citations of his sayings are innumerable, and most of them, if separated for a moment from the tragic historical circumstances of their origin, demonstrate that Starace had moved away from practical sense in his pursuit of a path for propaganda for the regime: "I wonder why the expectation is still to consider the end of the year to conform to the metric of 31 December rather than 28 October [the date of the March on Rome in 1922].

Far from offering excuses to the infuriated audience, he sharply cut short the protests with a famous phrase: "do less medicals, just drop your books and do more gymnastics, dedicate yourself to equestrian sports" (datevi all'ippica in Italian).

[citation needed] He even tried to have the "Viva Il Duce" motto made compulsory as the ending in public and private correspondence but Mussolini bluntly put a stop to this particular move, which he found ludicrous, saying: "how stupid would be a condolence letter that went: 'Harry is dead.

[citation needed] He insisted on having the plan of San Basilio (three blocks of council housing flats) shaped in such a way that they would form a gigantic D U C E[3] when seen from a passing aircraft, as a homage to Mussolini.