Badoglio, Marshal Pietro

Badoglio, Marshal Pietro (1871–1956),Italian Army officer who was chief of the Supreme General Staff (see Comando Supremo) from June to December 1940, and head of government after Mussolini was deposed in July 1943.

During the First World War Badoglio rose rapidly from lt-colonel in 1915 to general in 1917 and became army chief of staff in 1919. He resigned in 1921 and, though initially opposed to fascism, became Mussolini's ambassador in Brazil in 1923. In 1925 he was appointed both army chief of staff and chief of the Supreme General Staff and retained the latter post when he was appointed governor of Libya in 1928. When he returned in 1934 he became involved in opposing Mussolini's plans for invading Abyssinia, but was appointed commander of Italian forces there in November 1935 when they became bogged down in the fighting, and in March 1936 he defeated Emperor Haile Selassie's forces at Maych'ew. In May he was appointed viceroy of Abyssinia, but he returned to Italy after two weeks and King Victor Emmanuel made him Duke of Addis Ababa.

Initially Badoglio was opposed to Italy's intervention in the Second World War in June 1940, but he eventually acquiesced in Mussolini's plans and under him enjoyed some control of Italian strategy. However, he openly disapproved of Italy's invasion of Greece in October 1940 (see Balkan campaign) and when it proved disastrous he was quick to blame Mussolini for the fiasco. A newspaper then publicly accused Badoglio of incompetence and when Mussolini did not order a retraction from its editor Badoglio resigned in December 1940 and was replaced by Marshal Cavallero. For the next two and a half years Badoglio remained in the background, but by the time of Mussolini's arrest in July 1943 he had worked sufficiently hard behind the scenes to emerge as the Duce's most suitable successor. His negotiations with the Allies, while assuring the Germans that the Italians would continue to fight, were inept. When the armistice was announced on 8 September he fled Rome before it was occupied by the Germans and established his govern ment first at Brindisi and then Salerno, but when the capital was liberated in June 1944 he was forced to resign by the Committee of National Liberation and was replaced by Bonomi. See also Italy, 3.