Italy

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1

The United States Enters the War

At the same time, relations between the United States and Italy were approaching a showdown. In March the US government had seized 28 Italian merchant ships in US ports and arrested crew members who sabotaged the vessels on orders from the Italian naval attaché in Washington, D.C. The immediate recall of the attaché was demanded, whereupon Italy forced the recall of the US military attaché in Rome. When Italian assets in the United States were impounded in June, similar measures were taken against US assets in Italy. The alienation reached a climax in December, after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, when Mussolini declared war on the United States.

The outlook for Fascist Italy in 1942 was gloomy. In North Africa, temporary Italo-German gains were liquidated by a vigorous allied offensive. Axis forces, including the Italian, suffered serious reverses in the Soviet Union. Italian occupation troops in Albania, Yugoslavia, and Greece suffered heavy losses from guerrilla bands.

At home the Italian people endured a bitter winter with short rations of food and fuel. Increasing German control of all phases of Italian life, corruption and inefficiency among Fascist officials, and evasion of the rationing laws by the wealthy and influential contributed to their demoralization. In October the British launched a series of bombing raids against the industrial cities of northern Italy. As advancing British and American forces in North Africa established air bases in Algeria and Cyrenaica, southern Italy was also bombed. The political prestige of the Fascist regime continued to decline. In February 1943, hoping to turn the tide, Mussolini assumed full responsibility for both political affairs and military operations. When the Axis forces in Tunisia collapsed in May, he established a council of defence to prepare for an Allied invasion of the Italian mainland. All efforts to bolster defences and raise morale, however, were nullified by the Allied air raids.

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Invasion of Italy

On July 10, 1943, following the capitulation of the strategic Italian island of Pantelleria in the Mediterranean, Allied forces invaded Sicily. Six days later, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill addressed a joint radio message to the people of Italy urging their surrender to avoid greater devastation. The next day Allied planes dropped leaflets over Rome advising of a possible raid on military installations in its vicinity, but assuring that the utmost care would be taken to avoid destruction of residential buildings and cultural monuments. About 500 Allied bombers then attacked marshalling yards, armament factories, and airfields near the city.

The bombing precipitated a large-scale exodus of the Roman population and brought the political crisis to a climax. During the raid Mussolini was at Verona, conferring with Hitler on measures to meet the next phase of the Allied invasion. On his return to Rome he was confronted with a demand for a meeting of the Fascist Grand Council to consider the Italian military crisis. After a stormy debate, the session concluded with a vote of no confidence in Mussolini. King Victor Emmanuel on July 25 asked for Mussolini’s resignation and placed him in military custody. He summoned Marshal Pietro Badoglio to form a new ministry. The Badoglio Cabinet soon decreed the liquidation of all Fascist organizations.

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Surrender and Armistice

The fall of Mussolini precipitated clamorous peace demonstrations throughout Italy. Meanwhile, the Allies continued their advance in Sicily. Churchill offered Italy the choice of breaking off its alliance with Germany or suffering destruction; General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Allied Commander-in-Chief, promised the Italian people an honourable peace and a beneficent occupation if they ended their aid to the German war effort. In mid-August, a representative of Prime Minister Badoglio arrived in Lisbon with an offer to join the Allies against Germany when the Allied invasion of the Italian mainland began. American and British staff officers were dispatched to negotiate with the Italian emissary on the basis of Italy’s unconditional surrender. The armistice was signed on September 3, the day the invasion of southern Italy began.

The announcement of the armistice set off a furious race between the Allies and the Germans for possession of the territories, bases, arms and supplies, communications, and other war facilities formerly under Italian control. A large Anglo-American amphibious force landed on the beaches of Salerno just south of Naples, hoping to drive inland and trap the German units facing the British Eighth Army further south. The Germans, however, held off the invasion force until German units in southern Italy could retire. They also seized the cities and strategic centres of northern and central Italy, disarmed Italian troops, and rounded up thousands of suspected enemies. On September 10 they occupied Rome, from which King Victor Emmanuel III and Badoglio had fled two days earlier. The Allies were more successful in the race for control of the Italian fleet. In response to a message from the Allied naval commander in the Mediterranean, virtually all seaworthy Italian warships left their bases at La Spezia and other Italian-held ports to surrender to the Allies in accordance with the armistice terms.

The Germans retained the support of pro-Fascist Italians by announcing in September that a Fascist National Government had been established in opposition to the Badoglio government and was functioning in the name of Mussolini. The former dictator had been rescued from prison by German parachute troops, thus baulking Badoglio’s promise to deliver him to the Allies.

In line with pledges made to the Allies and to the Italian people, Prime Minister Badoglio declared war on Germany on October 13 and reorganized his government on a broader, more democratic basis. Seeking to induce leaders of various anti-German political groups to enter his Cabinet, he conferred with leaders of six political parties, disbanded by Mussolini, which had united to form a National Liberation Front. These liberal elements, however, would consent to form a representative government only if Victor Emmanuel abdicated. The king refused, and Badoglio declined any part in a move to oust him. As a temporary solution, he organized a so-called technical government of non-party experts to carry on administrative functions. In November the Committee of National Liberation voted no confidence in the Badoglio government and called on the king to abdicate.

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A New Government

In April 1944 the king announced his decision to withdraw from public affairs and to appoint his son Humbert, later King Humbert II, as Lieutenant-General of Italy, the appointment to become effective on the entry of Allied troops into Rome. This cleared the way for a government representing the National Committee of Liberation. The Allied armies liberated Rome on June 4, and Victor Emmanuel transferred all royal authority to Humbert. The party leaders of the Committee of National Liberation, however, unanimously refused to serve in the Badoglio government, and the position of prime minister was given to Ivanoe Bonomi, who formed a coalition government.

Because the new government was under Allied jurisdiction and control, its plans for domestic reforms were largely nullified. American and British officials, fearful of anything that might impede the Allied war effort, vetoed all proposals for social and economic change. Allied authorities also frowned on Italian anti-Fascist volunteers and resistance fighters, most of whom were radicals. The new Cabinet largely agreed on basic political issues. Middle-class liberals and proletarian radicals were united in the belief that the armistice terms should be modified and that Italy should be allowed to reshape itself into a self-governing democracy. Communists and socialists, elsewhere bitter adversaries, advocated economic reform. Even Communists and Roman Catholics found areas of agreement.

The winter of 1944 and 1945 was a period of intense suffering, particularly in the ravaged areas left by the retreating Germans. Throughout the central provinces were burned villages, idle or flooded fields, and ruined factories, railways, power plants, and bridges. Some 800,000 hectares (2 million acres) of arable land were left uncultivated, and prices of necessities rose prohibitively. As a result of the widespread misery, the Action and Socialist parties sharply criticized Bonomi’s leadership. Industrial stagnation, mass unemployment, and skyrocketing inflation, however, continued to frustrate the government in its efforts to rehabilitate the national economy.

The final Allied offensive in Italy began in April 1945, and by the end of the month the German armies had been completely smashed. Mussolini, his mistress, and several of his high-ranking colleagues were captured by Italian partisans at a small town near Lake Como. The entire group was summarily tried and, on April 28, executed. Northern Italians inflicted brutal vengeance on Mussolini’s followers after the German surrender on May 2. More than 1,000 Fascists were shot in Milan alone.

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Rise of De Gasperi

In accordance with a previous pledge Bonomi resigned after the liberation of northern Italy. A coalition government, representing the entire Committee of National Liberation, was then formed. The new government, headed by Ferruccio Parri, leader of the Action Party, was little more than a stopgap regime, however; it was unable to grapple effectively with the problems confronting Italy. In October monarchists and leaders of the Liberal Party accused Prime Minister Parri of violating the truce on the question of the monarchy, and he subsequently resigned. The ensuing crisis was accompanied by riotous demonstrations in southern Italy at the high cost of living. The Committee of National Liberation finally offered the premiership to Alcide De Gasperi, a Christian Democrat. He took office on December 9.

The year 1946 was one of unparalleled hardship for most of the Italian people. Although the privations provoked occasional civil unrest, the general mood of the populace was apathetic during the campaign preceding the national referendum and elections for a Constituent Assembly in June. The prevalence of opposition to the monarchy was indicated in April, when the convention of the Christian Democratic party voted by a ratio of 3 to 1 in favour of a republic. King Victor Emmanuel III abdicated on May 9, and his son ascended the throne as Humbert II.