Comando Supremo

Comando Supremo, common term for the Italian High Command, properly called Stato Maggiore Generale (STAMAGE), the Supreme General Staff. Marshal Badoglio headed STAMAGE from its inception in June 1925 until December 1940 and except for the period June 1925– February 1927, when it included the Army General Staff, it consisted only of his small secretariat. STAMAGE theoretically co-ordinated the armed forces. In practice, Mussolini allowed Badoglio such powers only during crises, even then hobbling him with political interference.

Between November 1933 and July 1943, Mussolini served as war, navy, and air minister, rejecting suggestions for a defence ministry and a combined general staff. In 1934 he made each service under-secretary simultaneously that service's chief of staff. This arrangement allowed Mussolini to control each service yet permitted each to develop separate war plans that failed to support Mussolini's plans for Mediterranean conquest. Meetings between Badoglio and the service chiefs in the spring of 1940 failed to resolve these contradictions.

In the six months following Italy's intervention in the war, the service chiefs and major operational commanders reported directly to Mussolini, excluding STAMAGE from major strategic decisions. Mussolini further diluted Badoglio's authority by appointing General Ubaldo Soddu, already army under-secretary, to the new post of deputy head of STAMAGE in June 1940. The consequent confusion and Mussolini's strategic incompetence helped create the disasters of October– December 1940 (see Balkan campaign, Sidi Barrani, and Taranto). Seeking scapegoats, Mussolini replaced Soddu with General Alfredo Guzzoni on 29 November 1940 and substituted General Cavallero for Badoglio on 4 December. Cavallero departed to command in Albania, where the Italians were fighting Greek forces in the Balkan campaign leaving Guzzoni as effective head of STAMAGE. Guzzoni reduced Mussolini's involvement in military matters but clashed with Cavallero over direction of the fighting in Albania.

After Cavallero returned to Rome on 18 May 1941, Mussolini dismissed Guzzoni, and expanded STAMAGE into a genuine Comando Supremo for the army with some authority over inter-service planning. Comando Supremo acquired its own intelligence service and established liaison with industry and the foreign ministry. Cavallero became Mussolini's chief military adviser, ended his interference with subordinate army commands, and accompanied him to meetings with Hitler. But Mussolini excluded Cavallero from his meetings with the navy and air chiefs and the Wehrmacht representatives in Rome.

Cavallero reoriented Comando Supremo to co-ordinate air, sea, and land operations in the Mediterranean aimed at the conquest of the Middle East. But the setbacks of 1940–1 left Italy dependent on German support and Comando Supremo planning subordinate to German strategy even though German forces in the Mediterranean theatre, including those of Rommel, officially came under Comando Supremo's control. Mussolini informed Cavallero on 30 May 1941 of imminent German attack on the Soviet Union and of his determination to participate. Thus the Mediterranean would become only a secondary theatre and Italy's mobile ground forces would be divided between Libya (seeWestern Desert campaigns) and those fighting on the Eastern Front. Comando Supremo sent three divisions to take part in the German–Soviet war in July 1941 (see Italy, 5(b)). A year later, it sent seven more. At the time of El Alamein, the Italians had eight understrength divisions in Egypt but ten well-equipped divisions near Stalingrad.

Following the fall of Tripoli to Montgomery's advancing Eighth Army after the second El Alamein battle, Mussolini replaced Cavallero with General Ambrosio on 1 February 1943. Comando Supremo retrieved what forces it could from the Balkans and Ukraine, while rushing reinforcements to the fighting in Tunisia (see North African campaign). Meanwhile, Ambrosio urged Mussolini to leave the war. After the Sicilian campaign landings in July 1943, when Mussolini continued resisting such entreaties, Comando Supremo fulfilled King Victor Emmanuel's orders to overthrow Mussolini on 25 July 1943. Six weeks later, after Italy switched sides, Comando Supremo plans to defend Rome from the Germans collapsed when the king, government, and Ambrosio fled the capital. Reconstituted thereafter, Comando Supremo came under the command of Marshal Messe on 18 November 1943 and it controlled the small forces the Allies allowed Italy until the end of the war.

Brian R. Sullivan