VIP Biography - Nino Arena

Italian paratrooper

Nino Arena was born in 1926, and after graduating in 1943, he applied for enlistment as a pilot in the Italian Royal Air Force. However, due to the armistice, the course was cancelled. As a result, in October 1943 he joined the "Nembo" para battalion as a volunteer and was trained in the Spoleto school by the II Flieger Korps of the German Luftwaffe. A year later in October 1944, he was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant and transferred to the 2nd MDT regiment (Milizia Difesa Territoriale - Territorial Defense Militia) in Pula (present Croatia)fighting Yugoslavian partisans.

In March 1945, he was recommended for the Iron Cross for his contribution in shooting down enemy bomber aircraft. Then in May of the same year, he was captured by the New Zealand 2nd Division and stayed in a POW camp, from which he evaded in August.

After a long period of severe harship, in 1954, he eventually joined a telephone company with which he worked with until his retirement in 1983.

In 1954 he resumed parachute jumping and got in touch with the aviation press, where he began writing for them as a free lance writer for several Italian magazines and served as a correspondent for TIME/LIFE magazine. He wrote many books, one of which was about the development of the radar, was adopted in Ireland by the Dublin University. Another book, "Air War in North Italy 1943/1945" was also translated in English.

For his accomplishments as a journalist and writer, Mr. Arena was awarded the title of "Cavaliere della Repubblica" (Knight of the Republic) by President Antonio Segni in the early 1960s.