Pietro Badoglio
Pietro Badoglio
A marshal who served Fascism before steering Italy's turn
When the armistice was announced on 8 September 1943, Badoglio's government left Rome and headed south for Allied protection.
Pietro Badoglio was an Italian royal army officer and colonial commander who enforced imperial violence in Libya and Ethiopia. A central military official under Mussolini, he resigned after the failure of the 1940 Greek campaign and later helped the monarchy remove the dictator. As prime minister after Mussolini's fall in 1943, he arranged Italy's armistice with the Allies, but the confused announcement and flight of the royal government left Italian forces unprepared for German disarmament and the collapse of state authority.
Career timeline
- 1890Commissioned as an artillery officer in the Italian Royal Army
- 1916Directed the capture of Monte Sabotino in the First World War
- 1925–1940Chief of the Italian General Staff
- 1929–1933Governor of Libya, directing repression and internment policies
- 1935–1936Commander of the invasion of Ethiopia, capturing Addis Ababa
- 1943–1944Prime minister after Mussolini's fall, signing Italy's armistice with the Allies
- 1944Resigned as prime minister and withdrew from political life