When the Royal Italian Navy decided to use airships for its Air Service, Brivonesi attended the first pilot training programme, which took place in 1910 between Rome and Vigna di Valle.

[1] On 23 May 1915, right before Italy's declaration of war on Austria-Hungary, Città di Jesi took off from Ferrara to carry out a bombing of the Pola naval arsenal, but the mission had to be aborted because of bad weather and engine problems.

[1] Città di Jesi was able to get out of range of the AA guns, but gradually lost altitude and finally ditched in the sea, in front of the Austrian base.

[1] In 1922 PV 3 was caught in a storm while flying near Crotone; the dirigible crashed, but Brivonesi was able to save his crew, gaining another Silver Medal of Military Valor.

[1] Between 8 November 1935 and 6 September 1936, as a captain, he commanded the heavy cruiser Trento, and between the end of 1936 and 1939 he was naval attaché at the Italian embassy in London.

On 18 August 1940 Brivonesi sailed from Bengasi on board the auxiliary minelayer Monte Gargano; after evading an attack by Rorqual, the ship rendezvoused with the submarine Iride and the torpedo boat Calipso in the Gulf of Bomba for the preparations of Operation G.A.

British aircraft flying nearby, however, noticed the unusual presence of three ships in the usually deserted Gulf of Bomba, and Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers were sent to attack them on 22 August: both Iride and Monte Gargano were sunk, thus sanctioning the failure of the operation before it could start.

On 24 May 1941, Brivonesi's 3rd Division (Trieste, Bolzano and the destroyers Ascari, Lanciere and Corazziere) was providing distant escort to a troop convoy (four troop transports with one destroyer and four torpedo boats as close escort), when HMS Upholder torpedoed one of the troopships, Conte Rosso, which sank with the loss of 1,297 men.

[6] Between 26 and 29 September 1941, Brivonesi and the 3rd Division (Trento, Trieste, and Gorizia, in addition to the destroyers Ascari, Lanciere, Corazziere and Carabiniere) sailed from Messina as part of the force tasked with countering Operation Halberd.

On 8 November 1941, Brivonesi sailed from Messina with Trieste, Trento and the 13th Destroyer Flotilla (Granatiere, Bersagliere, Fuciliere, Alpino) as distant escort of the "Beta" convoy (later known as the "Duisburg" convoy), which consisted in 7 merchant ships (the Italian cargo ships Maria, Sagitta and Rina Corrado, the Italian tankers Conte di Misurata and Minatitlan and the German cargo ships Duisburg and San Marco, laden with 389 vehicles, 34,473 long tons of munitions and matériel and 17,281 long tons of fuel) with a close escort of six destroyers (under the command of Captain Ugo Bisciani on Maestrale).

[7] The convoy was spotted by a British reconnaissance plane, and Force K (light cruisers Aurora and Penelope and destroyers Lance and Lively) sailed from Malta to intercept.

[7] The 3rd Division only returned to the area after a few hours, to cover the search and rescue operation, during which the destroyer Libeccio was sunk by HMS Upholder and Trento was narrowly missed by a torpedo.

[7] Following this disaster, Brivonesi was removed from command and court martialled by the Rome military tribunal under accusation of "loss of naval ship (…) caused by lack of adherence to usual engagement rules".

Admiral Angelo Iachino had spoken in favour of Brivonesi, and it is likely that his acquittal was also due to the will to cover up other responsibilities in the Navy commands, such as the unadequate training of the crews in nocturnal combat.

[8] On 7 September 1943, Brivonesi was summoned to Rome and informed by Raffaele de Courten that in a short time Germany and Italy may no longer have been allies, and that Italian forces would have to face hostile behaviour by the Germans.

[9] Brivonesi's forces heavily outnumbered the German troops in the area, but they included Blackshirts of doubtful allegiance, and most Italian navy personnel available were ragtag units of untrained and even unarmed men.

[9] The German occupation of La Maddalena had tragic consequences for the battle fleet, which had sailed from La Spezia heading there (where Brivonesi was to deliver to Bergamini some documents, including one with the conditions of the armistice): the ships had to turn away and were attacked by the Luftwaffe, which sank the battleship Roma off Asinara, killing admiral Carlo Bergamini and 1,392 men.