Lazare Ponticelli
Lazare Ponticelli was born in Cordani, a frazione in Bettola, Piacenza, Emilia-Romagna, in northern Italy. Aged 16, he lied about his age in order to join the French Army at the start of the war in 1914. He served at Soissons in Picardy, northeast France, and at Douaumont, near Verdun. In 1918, he was gassed in an Austrian attack that...