Badoglio, Pietro.

Badoglio, Pietro, born 29-07-1971 in Grazzano Monferrato,  Italy, His father, Mario Badaglio, was a modest landowner, and his mother Antonietta Pittarelli, was of middle class background. On 05-10-1888 Pietro was admitted to the Royal Militairy Academy in Turin. He received the rank of Second Lieutenant in 1890. In 1192, he finished his studies and was promoted to Lieutenant. After completing his studies, he served with the Italian Army from 1892, at first as a Lieutenant (Tenente) in artillery, taking part in the early Italian colonial wars in Eritrea (1896), and in Libya (1912). He joined the Italian Army and was a junior officer in Ethiopia. During the First War he rose from Captain to General and became Chief of Staff to the commander in Chief of the Army.

After the war he remained in the army but also entered politics as a senator. After expressing opposition to Benito Mussolini he was exiled as ambassador to Brazil. Badoglio later changed his political views and returned to Italy and became head of the armed forces. He was governor of Libya and in 1935 led the invasion of poorly armed Ethiopia.

Badoglio was opposed to Italy joining Germany against the Allies in World War II. He resigned as head of the armed forces after the defeat of the Italian Army in Greece. The loss of Sicily created serious problems for Benito Mussolini.

It was now clear that the Allies would use the island as a base for invading Italy. A meeting of the Fascist Grand Council was held on 24^th July and Galaezzo Ciano, Ciano is executed age 41, on 11-01-1944, got support for his idea that Italy should sign a separate peace with the Allies.

gave his only daughter the same name, Edda.

The following day Victor Emmanuel III told Mussolini he was dismissed from office. The king now appointed Badoglio as head of the government. Soon afterwards he declared martial law and placed Mussolini under arrest. Badoglio began negotiating an armistice with the Allies. When Generalfeldmarschall der Flieger, Albert Kesselring

 heard the news he rushed in German troops. In danger of being captured by the German forces, Badoglio and the Italian royal family were forced to escape to Pescara where a government was set up under the protection of the Allies. On 13^th October the Italian government declared war on Germany. On 23-09-1943, Badoglio and General Dwight Eisenhower signed the Italian surrender aboard Nelson off Malta. On 13-10-1943 the Italian government declared war on Germany. Following the German rescue of Mussolini, the liberation of Rome by General Mark Clark,

and increasingly strong opposition, he was on 9 June 1944 replaced by Ivanoe Bonomi of the Labour Democratic Party. Bonomi died age 77, on 20-04-1951, in Rome.  Due to increasing tensions with the Soviet Union, in which the British government saw Pietro Badoglio as a guarantor of anti communist post-war Italy, he was never tried for Italien war crimes committed in Africa. In an attempt to unite the country against Mussolini, Bonomi’s government included long time campaigners against fascism the leader of the Italian Communist Party.

Pietro Badoglio died on 01-11-1956, at the old age of 85 and is buried on the cemetery of Grazzano Badoglio, Asti, Italy. He was never tried for war crimes by the allies because he helped them in the invasion of Italy.

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