52 in 52 "Same Name" Ain Zara (6 of 52)

Last week I touched on the Italian side of my family, The Barra's from Brossasco and the Nardin's from Asiago for "So Far Away."  This week's prompt is "Same Name" and I'm going back to Asiago, to talk about the same family, only this time it's because of a mystery; because I have no idea how my Great Aunt ended up with the name she did - the name of a major battle ground in the Italo-Turkish War.

Rena Paganin

Giustina Maria Ain Zara "Rena" Paganin was born February 26th, 1912 in Asiago, Italy to Catterina Angela Nardin and Valentino Paganin.  Eleven months after Rena was born, her father would be dead, and less than two years after that she would be on the Duca D'Aosta steam ship with her mother and grandmother Mary Strazzabosco headed to Ellis Island.  But this time we're not talking abut what happened during or even after Rena's life, we're going to talk about what happened before.  

December 4th, 2011 an Italian force of 12,000 men moved into the Turkish oasis town of Ain Zara, after taking the city of Tripoli in Lybia.  They were headed to Tripolitania, but had to first get through the well-fortified oasis of Ain Zara garrisoned by 8,000 Ottoman soldiers.  BY 3 pm the following day, the Ottoman troops had been driven out, abandoning their artillery.  This did not, unfortunately, come without consequences to the Italian army; Colonel Giovanni Pastorelli of the 40th Infantry Regiment was killed, alongside sixteen soldiers, plus eight officers and 163 soldiers were wounded.  Ain Zara remained in Italian hands for the remainder of the war, and an ancient Roman mosaic was found while digging trenches, which was carefully sent back to Italy.  Technically the Italians would win the Italo-Turkish war with the peace treaty of Lausanne being signed October 18th, 2012.

The Italo-Turkish War, including the battle of Ain Zara, was an important precursor to WWI; not just by the still fairly-new Italy (being unified just 50 years before) forming important alliances it would go on to use in the following World War, but also because a young Italian pilot would have a reckless idea that would change the face of warfare; he would throw a bomb from an airplane for the first time ever.  Lieutenant Giulio Gavolli wrote a letter back to his father saying "I have decided to throw bombs out of my aeroplane.  It is the first time that we will try this and if I succeed, I will be really pleased to be the first person to do it."  This was just eight years after the Wright brothers were first in flight, and Ain Zara saw the first time the machines had been used in active war, with the US Army hatching the idea less than a year before by dropping sandbags as dummy bombs in training practices.  Gavotti carefully tucks three 1.5 kilo bombs into a leather case with a fourth in his pocket, pulls the pin with his teeth, and lobs the thing from his aircraft, 'being careful to avoid the wing.'  He writes "I can see it falling through the sky for couple of seconds and then it disappears. And after a little while, I can see a small dark cloud in the middle of the encampment.  I have hit the target!  I come back really pleased with the result. I go straight to report to General Caneva. Everybody is satisfied."  Most likely, this one-man-air-raid did not actually produce many, if any casualties, but the Italian press reported it back home with great delight.  

Gavotti and his airplane

Which brings me back around to that very particular name, Ain Zara.  How, and why, was she given that name?  I thought at first maybe Angela or Valentino had a friend or family member who died in the skirmish, but if one did, I have found no proof of it.  Valentino came from a large family with many brothers, but I don't have death dates or places for all of them, and those I do, he's the only one who died anywhere near the right time frame, and even he missed it by a year or more.  I only know of one brother of Angela, and he was already in the USA at the time.  

I did find another woman with the name Ain-Zara (using the hyphen, which Rena's name does not have) who was born February 8th, 1912, just a few weeks before Rena, in Orbetello, Grosseto, Italy.  I found a few born in England in 1912 also.  Was it just a patriotic thing to do?  I think most likely they had someone in the skirmish, even though I may never know whether or not that theory is true.  I cannot find a list of deceased for the battle despite the fact its such a small and clearly documented number.  For now, my ancestor with the same name as a battlefield will remain a link to the old country and a brick among many in the wall of questions I carry about my genealogy.  

Rena married late in life to a soldier named Water Garey, sometime in between 1940 (where I find her on the Chicago census as a boarder and housekeeper) and 1946, where she died at age 34 in Wisconsin.  I hope to one day answer many of the questions swirling around this particular ancestor (my great aunt!)  who is so close and yet so far from me.