Pietro Badoglio

Badoglio was born in 1871. His father, Mario Badoglio, was a modest landowner, and his mother, Antonietta Pittarelli, was of middle-class background. On 5 October 1888 he was admitted to the Royal Military Academy in Turin. He received the rank of second lieutenant in 1890. In 1892, he finished his studies and was promoted to first lieutenant. After completing his studies, he served with the Regio Esercito (Italian Royal Army) from 1892, at first as a lieutenant (tenente) in artillery. During the First Italo-Ethiopian War on February 1896 he was sent to Eritrea with General Antonio Baldissera and took part in the expedition to Adigrat to free Major Marcello Prestinari from the siege. He subsequently remained on garrison duty on the plateau, at Adi Keyh, until the end of 1898. Back in Italy, after attending the Army War School, he was promoted to captain on 13 July 1903 and took part in the Italo-Turkish War (1911–12) where he was decorated for military valour for having organised the action at Ain Zara and promoted to major for war merit for having planned the occupation of the Janzur. == First World War ==

At the beginning of Italian participation in the First World War, he was a lieutenant colonel (tenente colonnello); he rose to the rank of major general following his handling of the capture of Monte Sabotino in May 1916, and by the late months of 1917 – by now already a lieutenant general – was named as vice-chief of staff (sottocapo di stato maggiore) despite being one of those mainly responsible for the disaster during the Battle of Caporetto on 24 October 1917. With regard to the Battle of Caporetto, although he was blamed in various quarters for his disposition of the forces under his command before the battle, a commission of inquiry rejected most of the criticisms made upon him. In the years after the First World War, in which he held several high posts in the Regio Esercito, Badoglio exerted a constant effort in modifying official documents in order to hide his role in the defeat. == Genocide in Libya ==

After the war, Badoglio was named as a senator, but also remained in the army with special assignments to Romania and the U.S. in 1920 and 1921. At first he opposed Benito Mussolini, and after 1922 was sidelined by being sent to Brazil as ambassador. A political change of heart soon returned him to Italy and a senior role in the army, as chief of staff from 4 May 1925. On 25 June 1926, Badoglio was promoted to the rank of Marshal of Italy (''Maresciallo d'Italia''). Badoglio was the first sole governor of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica (later amalgamated as Italian Libya) from 1929 to 1933. During his governorship, he played a critical part (with Rodolfo Graziani, deputy governor of Cyrenaica) in the genocide of Libyan Arabs, which was intended to quell all Libyan resistance to Italian colonial rule. On 20 June 1930, Badoglio wrote to Graziani: "As for overall strategy, it is necessary to create a significant and clear separation between the controlled population and the rebel formations. I do not hide the significance and seriousness of this measure, which might be the ruin of the subdued population ... But now the course has been set, and we must carry it out to the end, even if the entire population of Cyrenaica must perish." By 1931, well over half of the population of Cyrenaica were confined to 15 concentration camps where many died as a result of overcrowding (and lack of water, food and medicine) while Badoglio's air force used chemical weapons against the Bedouin rebels in the desert. On 24 January 1932 (the third anniversary of his appointment), Badoglio proclaimed the end of Libyan resistance for the first time since the Italian invasion in 1911. == Italian invasion of Ethiopia ==

(at right) at Massawa On 3 October 1935, because the progress of De Bono's invasion of Abyssinia was judged by Mussolini to be too slow, Badoglio, who had in the meantime launched a letter campaign against Emilio de Bono, replaced de Bono as the commander. Badoglio asked for and was given permission to use chemical weapons, using the torture and murder of downed Italian pilot Tito Minniti during the Ethiopian "Christmas Offensive" as a pretext for doing so. British historian Sir Ian Kershaw wrote the "barbarous initiatives in the conduct of the war in Ethiopia" came as a rule from the military elite rather than from Mussolini himself. Badoglio employed mustard gas to effectively destroy the Ethiopian armies confronting him on the northern front. He commanded the Italian forces at the First battle of Tembien, the Battle of Amba Aradam, the Second battle of Tembien, and the Battle of Shire. On 31 March 1936, Badoglio defeated Emperor Haile Selassie commanding the last Ethiopian army on the northern front at the Battle of Maychew. On 26 April, with no Ethiopian resistance left between his forces and Addis Ababa, Badoglio launched his "March of the Iron Will" to take the Ethiopian capital city and end the war. By 2 May, Haile Selassie had fled the country. On 5 May 1936, Marshal Badoglio led the victorious Italian troops into Addis Ababa. Mussolini declared King Victor Emmanuel to be the Emperor of Ethiopia, and Ethiopia became part of the Italian Empire. On this occasion, Badoglio was appointed the first viceroy and governor general of Ethiopia and ennobled with the victory title of Duke of Addis Ababa ad personam. On 11 June 1936, Rodolfo Graziani replaced Badoglio as viceroy and governor-general of Ethiopia. Badoglio returned to his duties as supreme chief of the Italian general staff. According to Time magazine, Badoglio even joined the Fascist Party in early June. In 1938, his birthplace took the name of Grazzano Badoglio. == World War II ==

Badoglio was chief of staff from 1925 to 1940, and had the final say on the entire structure of the Armed Forces, including doctrine, selection of officers, and armaments, influencing the whole military environment. He did not oppose the decision of Mussolini and the King to declare war on France and Great Britain. Following the Italian army's poor performance in the invasion of Greece in December 1940, he resigned from the General Staff. He was replaced by Ugo Cavallero. By early 1943, there was a widely held belief among the military elite that Italy needed to sign an armistice in order to exit the war. They also believed that Mussolini needed to be removed, as he was not willing to sign an armistice, nor were the Allies willing to sign an armistice with him. The two men considered to replace Mussolini were Marshal Badoglio and Marshal Enrico Caviglia. As Marshal Caviglia was one of the few Royal Army officers who was known to dislike Fascism, the king was unwilling to have him as prime minister. Victor Emmanuel wanted an officer who was committed to continuing the Fascist system, which led him to choose Badoglio, who had faithfully served Mussolini and committed an array of atrocities in Ethiopia, but who had a grudge against Mussolini for making him the scapegoat for the failed invasion of Greece in 1940. On 8 September 1943, the armistice document was published by the Allies in the Badoglio Proclamation, while Badoglio himself had not informed the Italian armed forces. The units of the Italian Royal Army, Royal Navy, and Royal Air Force were thus generally surprised by the change and unprepared for swift German actions to disarm them. In the early hours of the following day, 9 September 1943, Badoglio, King Victor Emmanuel, some military ministers, and the chief of the general staff escaped by car from Rome to Pescara and then sailed on corvette "Bayonetta" to Brindisi seeking Allied protection. == Final years ==

Due to increased tensions with the Soviet Union, the British government saw Badoglio as a guarantor of an anti-communist post-war Italy. Consequently, Badoglio was never tried for Italian war crimes committed in Africa. Badoglio died in the comune of his birth, Grazzano Badoglio, on 1 November 1956. == See also ==