Born on January 7, 1913, Dario was the younger son of Visconte Gaetano de Angelis, an infantry general who died in close combat with Austro-Hungarian troops during the battle of Caporetto on October 24, 1917.

Brought up by a widowed mother at a formidable family estate in Tuscany, Dario's childhood was all about concealing grief and living up to high expectations. Following the footsteps of his father and his elder brother Sergio, he applied to the elite Scuola di Applicazione Militare in Turin, and got his commission to the Royal Army of Italy in 1930.

Despite his awkward personality and questionable pedigree (his paternal grandfather, an industrial tycoon, had purchased the title along with the Tuscan estate in the 1870's), his sultry good looks made Dario popular among women, and provided him with the taste for conquest, a delicacy he quickly became dependent on. Along with millions of Italians scarred by war and depression, Dario became fascinated by Mussolini's idea of a new "Risorgimento". Regarding his homeland abandoned by her allies and deprived of the fruits of victory, his initial determination of restoring Italian pride gradually turned into an obsession. Ensnared by Il Duce's dream of a New Roman Empire, he stood ready to embark on a personal crusade to distinguish himself and avenge his father on an unsuspecting world.

He drew first blood during the Spanish Civil War. Deployed to Aragon with the Italian Expeditionary Force in August 1937, he engaged and destroyed several Republican tankettes near the Tortosa junction. His conduct greatly impressed his German liaison officer, Hans von Gröbel, who in turn, introduced Dario to the "blitz" doctrine and its instruments, the new generation panzers. The "opposites attract" kind of comradeship between the two junior officers proved more durable than early tank designs. Those who knew them both would probably agree that Hans was the closest thing to a friend Dario ever had. His general fondness of all things German was a different story altogether. For Dario, the Third Reich was the Holy Roman Empire reborn in answer of Italian prayers for a strong and noble ally, proof of God's approval of Il Duce and his foreign policy.

In August 1940, twenty-six months after his reluctant goodbye to war in Spain, the dreams of Aspirante Dario De Angelis are about to come true. Assigned to the Mobile Infantry of

Marshall Graziani's 10th Army, he is to take part in the invasion of British North Africa alongside his brother Sergio. Determined to push himself to the limits, Dario plans to be the first Italian soldier to enter Cairo and uphold the family tradition by becoming a hero of his own right

Born on April 22, 1906, Sergio was the elder son of Visconte Gaetano de Angelis, and the older brother of Dario. He was lucky enough to have a real father instead of a bitter memory: he was almost eleven by the time Visconte Gaetano De Angelis gave his life in the Battle of Caporetto. His love, together with his lessons, left a lasting imprint on Sergio, a bright and eccentric boy who matured into a sturdy and shrewd young man with a natural flair for tactics and diplomacy.

Despite his top notch Academy record and undisputed bravery, he is not the perfect soldier Dario believes him to be. A loner and survivor by nature, he is too well educated to kill without remorse, too empathic to send people to their deaths, and lacks the necessary ambition to become a staff officer. Skeptical about Fascism in general and Mussolini's character in particular, Sergio did his best to keep away from Rome as much as possible during the initial phase of his career. His "baptism of fire" was the defense of a backwater Libyan garrison against Tubu raiders. Later on, he fought with distinction in Abyssinia and Eritrea, traveled all over the Middle East and mastered over a dozen languages - hence his reassignment to Military Intelligence by Marshall Pietro Badoglio, friend and comrade of the late General De Angelis. Despite Dario's unconditional faith in Fascism, Sergio still regards him as famiglia, and makes no attempt to tarnish his pristine ideas of heroism and patriotism. Revealing any doubts about himself or Italy's future would only force Dario to pick another role model, presumably Il Duce himself, and Sergio does not fancy the idea of losing Dario to an unscrupulous bastard like Mussolini.

In August 1940, Primo Capitano, Sergio De Angelis, regards the imminent Axis invasion of North Africa as his brother's best and last hope of salvation. If Dario survives long enough to see his dreams measured against the gruesome reality of war, he may recognize the error of his ways. When he does, Sergio will still be there for him.