342 Ettore Muti: Fez as Commander of the GIL (Gioventù Italiana del Littorio)
Fine black felt with fringe on the sides. In the centre, original sewn gilt bullion embroidery cord. Front with rank insignia in gilt and silver-plated metal thread bullion embroidery on red cloth backing. Embroidered rank insignia on the side in splendid metal thread embroidery.
Original lining of white silk with embossed Italian eagle and maker's inscription: "Unione Militare Roma" under plastic trapeze.
Very beautiful and splendid, extraordinarily rare fez of one of the most important personalities of Italian fascism.
Ettore Muti (* 2 May 1902 in Ravenna, Italy; † 24 August 1943 in Fregene) was an Italian fascist and military leader.
As a 15-year-old, Muti enlisted at the front with forged papers. He was also involved in the occupation of Fiume in 1919 by Gabriele D'Annunzio's Army.
As a volunteer, he took part in both the war against Ethiopia and the Spanish Civil War on Franco's side. Muti held the second highest party office behind Mussolini as secretary of the Fascist Party from 31 October 1939 to 30 October 1940. In October 1940, he flew an SM.82 in an attack against the oil fields of Bahrain. Despite sight damage (left eye from petrol fumes and right eye from metal splinters from World War I) he went on to fly torpedo bombing missions, mostly as 2nd pilot to his aide Major Paolo Moci, from Rhodes Gadurra. He died in unexplained circumstances after Mussolini was deposed in 1943. After his death, he was glorified as a hero in Mussolini's Italian government (Repubblica Sociale Italiana - RSI) in northern Italy, which was under German protection. The paramilitary unit named after him, Legione Autonoma Ettore Muti (Autonomous Legion Ettore Muti), was a smaller combat unit used mainly against resistance fighters and partisans of the Resistenza in the Milan area.