Photographer Carlo Comello, who captured the last cavalry charge, dies at 101

Carlo Comello, the Italian photographer who documented the historic Charge of Isbuscenskij during World War II, died on January 15, 2021, at the age of 101 in Stradella Hospital (Pavia) due to complications from COVID-19. He was a widower with no children and had been living in a local nursing home for five years. Born on September 29, 1919, in Castelovetto, Lomellina, Comello worked as a farmer his entire life. His military service began in February 1940 when he enlisted in the 3rd Rapid Artillery Regiment 'Principe Amedeo Duca d'Aosta', first Horse Artillery Group, at the 'Principe Eugenio' barracks in Milan. After training in Friuli (March–October 1940), he was sent to Croatia in late March 1941, and in July 1941 he departed for the Russian Front, driving a combat truck through Romania and Moldova into Ukraine. On August 24, 1942, while serving as a driver of a munitions and fuel truck, he witnessed the Charge of Isbuscenskij—the last cavalry charge by the Italian Royal Army against regular troops. Using his bellows-type Zenith Luxos camera purchased before deployment, he climbed onto the truck roof and hid in a nearby grove to capture several photographs of the event. Comello kept these images hidden in a drawer for 65 years until 2007, when he finally revealed them. Prior to their release, only staged propaganda images of the charge existed, produced by the Istituto Luce under orders of the fascist regime to glorify military valor.