Rodolfo Graziani

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Graziani, Marshal Rodolfo (1882–1955),Italian Army chief of staff who served as a minister in Mussolini's Italian Social Republic (see Italy, 3(b)), and proved to be the most reliable fascist of Mussolini's senior army officers.

Graziani finished the First World War as the army's youngest colonel and by 1928 he was commanding all Italian forces in Tripolitania. In 1930 he became vice-governor of Cyrenaica and commanded a harsh campaign against the rebellious Senussi tribesmen, sealing the Egyptian border with a wire fence and imprisoning the nomadic population in camps. In early 1935 he was appointed military governor of Italian Somaliland and commanded the troops that invaded Abyssinia that October. The following May he succeeded Badoglio as governor-general and viceroy in Abyssinia. After brutally suppressing the local population, which led to a general revolt, he left Abyssinia in January 1938 and after passing two years in virtual retirement was appointed army chief of staff in October 1939.

In June 1940, when the governor of Libya, Marshal Italo Balbo (1896–1940), was accidentally shot down and killed by his own anti-aircraft batteries, Graziani replaced him as commander of Italian forces in Libya, retaining his position as the army's chief of staff. Having been ordered to attack, in September 1940 he reluctantly moved his forces into Egypt. However, he had only got as far as Sidi Barrani when he was decisively beaten by O'Connor's Western Desert Force in December 1940. He was defeated again at Bardia and Tobruk, and was finally driven out of Cyrenaica following the defeat of the remains of his forces at Beda Fomm in February 1941. He then pleaded a nervous breakdown and retired to private life. A board of enquiry was established to investigate his conduct, but though it reported adversely no action was taken. During the life of Mussolini's Italian Social Republic in northern Italy he served as defence minister and Mussolini's chief of staff and instigated repressive measures against Italian partisans. After the war he was sentenced by an Italian court to nineteen years' imprisonment but was released in 1950.

Rodolfo Graziani , 1882–1955, Italian soldier and colonial administrator. After serving in World War I and in Libya (1921–33), he was made (1935) governor of Italian Somaliland. For his part in the Italo-Ethiopian War, he was promoted to marshal and served (1936–37) as viceroy of Ethiopia. Graziani was made chief of staff of the Italian army (1939) and became governor of Libya (1940). In World War II, Graziani's army was completely routed (winter 1940–41) by the British in the Libyan campaign, and he resigned his command. Arrested in 1945, Graziani was indicted for high treason for his collaboration with the Germans in N Italy after the Italian armistice with the Allies in 1943. After two trials he was convicted (1950) by a military court and sentenced to 19 years in prison. However, he was released from custody a few months later and became active in the neofascist party.

Graziani, Rodolfo (b. 11 Aug. 1882, d. 11 Jan. 1955). Italian marshal (1936) He participated in World War I with distinction and subsequently commanded the Italian forces in the reconquest of Libya, 1921–31. In the Abyssinian War he led the southern flank and succeeded Badoglio as viceroy of Ethiopia, 1936–7. Chief of Staff of the Italian army 1939–40, he led the Italian campaign in North Africa, 1940–1. He accepted the post of Foreign Minister in Mussolini's Republic of Salò, 1943–5. He surrendered to the Allies on 1 May 1945 and was later sentenced to nineteen years of solitary confinement for collaboration with the enemy. He was granted an amnesty in 1950 and became involved in Fascist politics once again.