John Gooch - Mussolinis War

John Gooch is one of the worlds leading writers on Italy and the two world wars. His books include Mussolini and His Generals and The Italian Army and the First World War. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of Leeds. In 2010 the President of Italy appointed him Cavaliere dellOrdine della Stella della Solidarieta Italiana.

. Marshal Pietro Badoglio.

. General Alfredo Guzzoni.

. General Vittorio Ambrosio (centre) and General Efisio Marras (left).

. General Mario Roatta, Spain, 1937.

. North Africa. M 13/40 tanks moving up to the front line, October 1940.

. North Africa. Bersaglieri advancing on Tobruk.

. North Africa. Assault engineers attacking north of El Alamein, November 1942.

. North Africa. Rommel and Cavallero (centre right) visit the front, November 1942.

. North Africa. Bersaglieri manning a 47mm anti-tank gun, Tunisia, March 1943.

. Greece/Albania. Mussolini leads the advance on Greece.

. Greece/Albania. Italian artillery on the front line.

. Greece/Albania. Supplying the front was often a hand-to-mouth business.

. Greece/Albania. Tapping a phone line; communications were a perpetual problem.

. Greece/Albania. Front-line propaganda the headline reads Hate the English.

. Croatia. A etnik militiaman.

. Croatia. Captured rebels.

. Croatia. In action a burning village.

. Russia. Capturing the Donets Basin, 1941.

. Russia. Italian cavalry charging on the Don.

. Russia. Italian infantry attacking a factory.

. Russia. Old artillery in action a 1911 model 75mm gun.

. Russia. Christmas Day 1941.

. Russia. General Giovanni Messe inspecting Bersaglieri, 1942.

. Admiral Domenico Cavagnari.

. Admiral Arturo Riccardi.

. Admiral Angelo Iachino.

. The battleship Vittorio Veneto, 1940.

. The Italian heavy cruiser squadron heading into the battle of Punta Stilo, 9 July 1940.

. Taranto, 12 November 1940. The rear turret of the battleship Cavour, with the Doria in the background.

. An Italian merchantman burning in Tripoli harbour, 1942.

. Mussolini inspects a squadron of Savoia-Marchetti SM 79 bombers.

. Known to Italian airmen as the gobbo maledetto (damned hunchback), the SM 79 was the multi-role workhorse of the Regia Aeronautica.

. An airfield in Russia.

. A Macchi MC 200 fighter on the Russian front.

. Wrecked Italian CR 42 and G 50 aircraft, Tripoli, 1943.

Nos. 123 and 33 are reproduced with permission from the Archivio Fotografico dellUfficio Storico dello Stato Maggiore dellEsercito.

Nos. 2430 are reproduced with permission from the Archivio Storico della Marina Militare.

Nos. 312 and 345 from Wikimedia Commons (public domain, out of copyright).

The character of a leader is a large factor in the game of war

General William Tecumseh Sherman

Once again I am deeply grateful to the personnel who man the Ufficio Storico dello Stato Maggiore dellEsercito in Rome for their help and support while I was researching this book. Colonel Filippo Cappellano, first as caparchivio and latterly as Head of the Office, a distinguished historian in his own right, has welcomed me on numerous occasions and shared with me his unbounded knowledge of the archives. His predecessor, Colonel Cristiano Dechigi, was no less supportive in his turn. Lieutenant-Colonel Emilio Tirone, currently head of the archive, has been and is no less welcoming and has given me much unobtrusive but invaluable assistance. Trawling through the archives themselves was made infinitely easier with the advice and guidance of the principal archivist, Dottore Alessandro Gionfrida. My thanks go to him, to his deputy Dottore Filippo Bignato, and to the unfailingly cheerful and friendly staff who ferry the files to and fro. With the help of caporale maggiore Claudio Piddini, and some much-appreciated cups of espresso coffee, I was able to make a brief raid on the photographic archives a source of extraordinary depth and richness which remains under-exploited by historians.

My entry into the Italian Air Ministry was made simple and straightforward thanks to the friendship, help and hospitality of Lieutenant-General Basilio Di Martino. The head of the Ufficio Storico dellAeronautica Militare, Colonel Luigi Borzise, opened its resources to me without hesitation. He and his staff, Dotoressa Monica Bovino and Signore Marcello Neve, were friendliness personified and made my brief time with them both productive and delightful.

Getting into Service archives in Italy requires jumping through bureaucratic hoops. Signora Palmina Cerullo of the British Embassy in Rome has come up trumps every time yet another of my requests for help has landed on her desk. Thanks, Palmina.

In Genoa, Dr Gianni Franzone, director of the Centro Wolfsoniana, kindly found me room and time in which to consult his archive. And at Castiglione delle Stiviere, Professoressa Dr Silvana Greco and Professor Giulio Busi, directors of the Fondazione Palazzo Bondoni Pastorio, were the most hospitable and kindly of hosts.

My visits to the outstation of the Imperial War Museum at Duxford were among my most enjoyable outings thanks to the presence there of Stephen Walton as Senior Curator. Stephen provided everything a researcher could want: swift and comprehensive guidance through the holdings, ready help when needed, relaxing surroundings even coffee and a biscuit!

In Rome, long-time friends Dr Ciro Paoletti and Professor Andrea Ungari made my visits even more of a pleasure than they would otherwise have been. And in London Drs. Jenny and Michael Sevitt provided home comforts while I visited the ever-efficient National Archives at Kew.

Assembling the materials for a book such as this is not straightforward and I am deeply grateful to friends old and new for helping me do so. My warmest thanks go to Professor Holger Afflerbach; Dr Fabio De Ninno; Dr Jurgen Foerster; Dr Emilio Gin; Dr Richard Hammond; Professor MacGregor Knox; Dr Jacopo Lorenzini; Professor Evan Mawdsley; Dr Steven Morewood; Professor Rick Schneid; Dr Matteo Scianna; Dr Brian Sullivan; and Dr Nicolas Virtue.

My editor at Penguin Books, Simon Winder, has been enthusiastic about this project from the outset. His experienced eye has been of the greatest help in getting the manuscript into its final shape. To him, to Richard Mason, who copy-edited the book, to Ruth Pietroni and Eva Hodgkin, who oversaw its progress through the editorial process, and to Jeff Edwards, who drew the maps, my warm gratitude.

Many years ago a professor in my college remarked that historians should not marry. For me at least, he was wholly wrong. Ann has lived patiently with Italian matters military for a very long time, managing our lives together here in England and in Rome. Without her as a partner this book would not have been written, so it is at least as much hers as it is mine.

Commissioned as a cavalry officer, Ambrosio served as a divisional staff officer during the First World War and a divisional and then corps commander in the years that followed. In 1939 he was given command of 2nd Army on the Yugoslav border, leading the Italian offensive against the Yugoslavs in April 1941. Exchanging posts with Mario Roatta, he became chief of the army general staff in January 1942. On 1 February 1943 Mussolini appointed him chief of the armed forces general staff. A dyed-in-the-wool monarchist, he played a major part in the plotting that led to Mussolinis downfall after repeated but fruitless attempts to persuade Mussolini to change course. On 89 September, after the announcement of the armistice, he left Rome along with the king, Badoglio and others, serving under the rump Italian government as inspector-general of the army until November 1944.