In 1911, at the age of 18, he served in the Italian armed forces during the Italo-Turkish War (1911–1912), where he witnessed the first military use of airplanes in combat.

When Italy entered World War I (1914–1918) on the side of the Allies in 1915, de Bernardi was in the 2nd Regiment of the Piedmont Royal Cavalry.

[1] De Bernardi later became an aircraft parts inspector and the director of the experimental airfields at Montecelio, Furbara, and Vigna di Valle.

At the turn of the 1930s de Bernardi joined the Caproni company at Taliedo, near Milan, serving as a test pilot and technical consultant .

In 1933, de Bernardi piloted a Caproni Ca.111 reconnaissance aircraft/light bomber with five passengers on board on a flight of 2,600 kilometres (1,600 mi) from Rome, Italy, to Moscow in the Soviet Union.

De Bernardi received the Gold Medal of Valor (Aviation), given to "Reward acts of singular courage, skill, and philanthropy committed on board aircraft in flight."