He participated in the First World War with the rank of cavalry major; serving at the Supreme Command, he distinguished himself in advanced reconnaissance actions, being awarded two Bronze and one Silver Medal of Military Valour for his behaviour in the battles of Asiago, of the Ortigara and of Vittorio Veneto.

[1][2][3] In 1941 he was given command of the territorial defense of Bari, where along with General Luigi De Biase (commander of the XI Army Corps, with headquarters in Bari) he conducted the internal investigation launched by the Royal Italian Army on the conduct of General Nicola Bellomo for the facts of Torre Tresca (the killing of a fugitive British prisoner of war), which resulted in his exoneration.

On 11 January 1942 he was transferred to the Army reserve due to his age, and was again given command of the territorial defense of Florence; in April he was promoted to Lieutenant General.

After the fall of Fascism on 25 July 1943 he refused any co-operation with anti-Fascist parties and harshly applied the directives issued by Pietro Badoglio and Mario Roatta for the restoration of public order; on 1 August he ordered the political prisoners who had been released from prison after the fall of the regime to surrender themselves to the authorities to be taken again into custody (among them were Communist leader Dante Conti and Socialist Giuseppe Saragat, who were thus arrested again).

[6][7][8][2][3] On 5 April 1945 he was appointed head of the Piedmont Regional Military Command, and in early May he was taken prisoner by U.S. troops and imprisoned in the Coltano prisoner-of-war camp.