8 set 1943 ano - "Alaric", Nazis invades

Descrição:

At 18:00 on 8 September a hurried and dramatic Council of the Crown was held at the Quirinale Palace; the king, Badoglio, Ambrosio, Guariglia, General Giacomo Carboni (head of the Military Intelligence Service and commander of the Corpo d'Armata Motocorazzato tasked with defending the capital), General Antonio Sorice (War Minister), Admiral Raffaele de Courten (Minister of the Navy), General Renato Sandalli (Minister of the Air Force), General Paolo Puntoni, General Giuseppe De Stefanis, and Major Luigi Marchesi (secretary of Ambrosio) participated. Faced with the clear instructions transmitted by Eisenhower and the first indiscretions leaking on foreign radios about the armistice, the Italian leadership, after heated discussions where Carboni went as far as to propose that they retracted Castellano's actions, finally agreed with Marchesi, who said that they should unavoidably keep the word they had given to the Allies, and confirm the news. At 18:30 General Eisenhower, speaking on Radio Algiers, officially announced the armistice, and at 19:42 Badoglio gave in turn the announcement via the public service broadcaster EIAR. During the previous days, the German representatives in Rome had been given reiterated statements of loyalty to the alliance, expressed at the highest levels; on 3 September Badoglio himself had confirmed to Rahn his firm will to remain at the side of Germany, and still on 6 September General Toussaint thought that the Italians had rejected the harsh demands of the Allies. Even in the morning of 8 September, Rahn met the king and the latter reassured him about his decision not to surrender, and in the afternoon Roatta reaffirmed by telephone that news coming from abroad were a propagandist hoax. Rahn was thus taken by surprise when at 19:00 on 8 September, having been warned by Berlin about the news of the armistice, he met Guariglia whom immediately confirmed the news and told him about the exit of Italy from the war and from the Axis alliance. Rahn replied bitterly, then hastily left Rome along with Toussaint and the embassy personnel and went to Frascati, where Kesselring's headquarters were located.

Despite the initial surprise, the German response, having been accurately planned and organized in detail, was swift and effective; Hitler, who at 17:00 came back to Rastenburg after spending a few days in Ukraine at the headquarters of Field Marshal Erich von Manstein, soon learned of the armistice from a BBC transmission, and acted with extreme resolve. At 19:50, a few minutes after Badoglio had finished his announcement, the aide of General Jodl broadcast the coded word "Achse" to all subordinated commands; it was the signal for the German forces to attack Italian forces in all the war theaters of the Mediterranean.

In Trieste, General Alberto Ferrero, after fruitless talks with anti-fascist representatives, started negotiations with the Germans and then abandoned the city, and 90,000 Italian soldiers in the area, abandoned without orders, surrendered without a fight....

The V Italian Army Corps, XI Italian Army Corps, and XVIII Italian Army Corps which formed the 2nd Italian Army, stationed in Slovenia, Croatia and Dalmatia, were attacked by two Croat and three German divisions; General Gastone Gambara, commander of the XI Italian Army Corps, started negotiations in Fiume and then abandoned his troops on 14 September, leaving them to be captured; Pola also fell without resistance. On 11 September the divisions stationed in Dalmatia were ordered to avoid any resistance in the hope of a peaceful repatriation, but the subordinate units refused, and started fighting against the Germans. The 14th Infantry Division "Isonzo", 22nd Infantry Division "Cacciatori delle Alpi" and 153rd Infantry Division "Macerata" were dissolved, whereas the 57th Infantry Division "Lombardia" and the 154th Infantry Division "Murge" resisted in Susak and Karlovac; the 158th Infantry Division "Zara" surrendered on 10 September and its commanders were deported, while in Split the 15th Infantry Division "Bergamo" made an agreement with Yugoslav partisans and defended the town till 27 September against the 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division Prinz Eugen, sent from Mostar; after surrender, three Italian generals (Alfonso Cigala Fulgosi, Salvatore Pelligra and Angelo Policardi) and 46 officers were executed. The 1st Cavalry Division "Eugenio di Savoia", stationed in Dalmatia, was dispersed.

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