[2][3] Promoted to tenente (English: lieutenant) on 5 September 1907,[2] he participated in the Italo-Turkish War of 1911–1912, for which he received an award of the Bronze Medal of Military Valor.
He remained there for six years, during which time he was promoted to colonnello (English: colonel) on either 26 December 1926[1] or 9 June 1927,[2] according to different sources.
Prime Minister of Italy Benito Mussolini developed a special regard for him, reflected in notes made in 1931 by General Pietro Gacchera.
[5] He returned briefly to the general staff while awaiting orders, then assumed command of the 36th Infantry Regiment on 1 October 1930.
After his return to Italy, he drew up a report which helped to organize the operational plans for the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, which were implemented in 1935.
According to one source, Visconti Prasca was assigned to the general staff "for special duties" as of 18 October 1934, serving in this capacity until 11 September 1935.
Either in January 1935[8] or on 11 July 1935,[1] according to different sources, Visconti Prasca became an honorary adjutant to King Victor Emmanuel III.
"[1][2] Sources differ on his next assignments: Some claim he detached from his Ministry of War duties on 1 March 1940 and then was placed at the disposal of the army chief of staff until 5 June 1940,[1][2] while another claims that for short time in early 1940 he commanded III Army Corps[10] on the Italian border with France[11] as Italy made preparations to enter the war on the side of the Axis powers.
During his introductory meeting with Mussolini, which took place at the Palazzo Venezia in Rome, there was no discussion of war with Greece or Yugoslavia.
[2] During July 1940, Mussolini, pushed by Ciano, decided to attack a neutral country without consulting with Nazi Germany first in order to compensate for Marshal of Italy Rodolfo Graziani's hesitance to invade Egypt from Libya and to compete with the military successes of the German Wehrmacht.
Visconti Prasca returned to Tirana, Albania, where he worked for a long time to draw up a plan for the invasion of Greece, which presupposed the use of four divisione binaria (English: double divisions), i.e. divisions composed of only two infantry regiments each, which would carry out an attack along a front of approximately 60 miles (97 km).
[19] The start of military operations was postponed from 26 to 28 October 1940, but on 28 October 1940,[18] as the winter season approached, the Italian troops launched their attack[18] along the steep and dangerous mountainous terrain that formed the Epirus front, encountering little resistance during their advance, with the result that Visconti Prasca sent a telegram to Rome to report Italian forces were advancing at a "rapid pace."
[21] Overly confident in Greek weakness and the perfection of his invasion plan, Visconti Pracsa had done little to prepare his troops for combat and failed to ensure their logistical support, even neglecting such basic requirements as the provision of mules to carry supplies through the mountains, leaving the Italians not only in danger of failing to conquer Greek territory but of losing territory in Albania.
[22] Mussolini, outraged at Visconti Prasca's handling of the invasion, removed him from command of the troops on 8 November 1940, the same day the initial Italian advance halted, replacing him with General Ubaldo Soddu.
Upon arriving in Albania, Soddu deemed the initial attack a failure and ordered Italian forces to shift immediately to a defensive stance.
His second award of the Bronze Medal for Military Valor was for his actions from 1915 to 1917 on the Italian front during World War I, the citation reading, "During more than two years of war, in a number of different situations, he carried out daring reconnaissance missions along the front, while as an officer he relayed orders between the different military units, displaying determination and ignorance of danger.