[citation needed] Amedeo entered the Nunziatella, the military academy in Naples, joined the Italian Royal Army (Regio Esercito) and fought with distinction in the artillery during World War I.

Amedeo served under Marshal Rodolfo Graziani and Libyan Governor Pietro Badoglio during later stages of the so-called "pacification of Libya" (1911 to 1932).

[3] Amedeo, portrayed by the tall actor Sky du Mont, appears in several non-flying scenes with Graziani in the movie The Lion of the Desert,[4] about the Italian conquest of Libya.

But, after fierce resistance, the Battle of Keren ended in Italian defeat,[6] after which the rest of Eritrea, including the port of Massawa, fell quickly.

On 31 January, he reported that the Italian military forces in East Africa were down to 67 operational aircraft with limited fuel stocks.

With supplies running low and with no chance of re-supply, he opted to concentrate the remaining Italian forces into several strongholds: Gondar, Amba Alagi, Dessie, and Gimma.

With his water supply compromised, surrounded, and besieged by 9,000 British and Commonwealth troops and more than 20,000 Ethiopian irregulars, he surrendered Amba Alagi on 18 May 1941.

In one instance, before he fled his headquarters at Addis Ababa, he wrote a note to the British to thank them in advance for protecting the women and children in the cities.

[citation needed] Instead he invited the 5th Duke of Aosta to Ethiopia in the mid-1960s, and accorded him all the protocol due to visiting royalty.