4 abr 1939 año - Franco-Italian Armistice | Armistice of Villa Incisa

Descripción:

On 31 March 1939, French British Foreign Minister Paul Baudoin and Britain's Foreign Secretary Kingsley Wood got into contact with the Papal nuncio Valerio Valeri.
The French government requests that the Holy See pass on to the Italian government as quickly as possible. It had been transmitted through the Spanish ambassador to the German government.

It also requested that he convey to the Italian government its desire to find together a lasting peace between the three countries.

That same morning, Mussolini received word from Hitler that France and the UK had asked Germany for an armistice.
When Mussolini left to visit Hitler at Geneva, he left General Roatta, Admiral Raffaele de Courten and Air Brigadier Egisto Perino in charge of drafting Italy's demands for a treaty with France and the UK.

Many demands, in Galeazzo Ciano eyes, were ridiculous. His staff suggested: the entire French Navy, all of France's colonies, all its locomotives and the Mona Lisa, all of which to own in the future peace treaty.
The final set of demands wasn't as harsh towards France as Germany but, at the same time, enough to ruin French superiority in the Mediterranean.

Mussolini's visit to the Swiss city of Geneva was to tell the German Führer Adolf Hitler his intentions and demands for their future treaty.
His version was to establish a "Third Rome", a Rome that will be respected for many years to come.
And Hitler was in full support of their Italian ally.

When returning to Rome, Mussolini wanted to delay the meeting with the Allies in hopes that General Gambara would take the city of Nice.
This choice would be proven fruitless. General Gambara's forces encountered fierce French resistance and were only on the outskirts of Nice.

On 3 April, the French delegation, headed by General Charles Huntziger, arrived in Rome by aircraft.

The French negotiators were Huntziger, General Maurice Parisot, General Jean Bergeret, Admiral Maurice Le Luc, Charles Rochat of the Foreign Ministry and Léon Nöel, former ambassador to Poland.
Italy was represented by Badoglio, Cavagnari, Ciano, Roatta and Francesco Pricolo.

The first meeting of the two delegations took place at 19:30 hours at the Villa Incisa all'Olgiata on the Via Cassia.
It lasted only twenty-five minutes, during which Roatta readout Italy's proposed terms, Huntziger requested a recess to discuss with his government and, Ciano adjourned the meeting until the next day.

During the next day, the armistice was signed by General Charles Huntziger who, wrote on behalf of the French and Marshal Badoglio for the Italians signed the armistice.

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