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RSI Armed Forces

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Mussolini and the Salò Republic, 1943–1945

Part of the book series: Italian and Italian American Studies ((IIAS))

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Abstract

Mussolini angled to create a strong and independent army, but, as a German puppet leader, he had little leverage in applying pressure on Berlin to release the 600,000 Italian soldiers languishing in camps in the Third Reich. Meanwhile, within Italian ranks, a struggle for military primacy ensued between Graziani, head of the army, and Ricci, the Fascist Militia chieftain. In due course the radical Alessandro Pavolini threw his hat in the ring by contriving a National Republican Guard made up of Blackshirts, former political police from Africa, and royalist Carabinieri.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Osti Guerrazzi, Storia della repubbica sociale italiana, p. 91.

  2. 2.

    ADAP, E, VI, p. 593, sgg.

  3. 3.

    Cited in Perticone, La repubblica di Salò, p. 140.

  4. 4.

    Emilio Canevari, Graziani mi ha detto (Rome: Magi Spinetti, 1947), pp. 285–88.

  5. 5.

    Ibid., p. 287. Canevari cites the phrase “Approvo incondizionatamente” that appears in a Promemoria “L’esercito Repubblicano,” signed by Emilio Canevari, in ACS, SPD/71.

  6. 6.

    Canevari, Graziani mi ha detto, p. 288.

  7. 7.

    Dolfin, Con Mussolini nella tragedia, p. 39.

  8. 8.

    OO, XXXII: 254–55.

  9. 9.

    The Goebbels Diaries, p. 533.

  10. 10.

    Stuhlpfarrer , Le zone d’operazione, p. 64.

  11. 11.

    Cited in Kinkhammer, L’occupazione tedesca in Italia, p. 269.

  12. 12.

    Deakin’s description, in The Six Hundred Days of Mussolini, pp. 68–69, is based on Graziani’s account in his book.

  13. 13.

    Canevari, Graziani mi ha detto, p. 288.

  14. 14.

    Dolfin, Con Mussolini nella tragedia, p. 39.

  15. 15.

    Cited in Deakin , The Six Hundred Days of Mussolini, p. 69.

  16. 16.

    Canevari, Graziani mi ha detto, pp. 289–90.

  17. 17.

    Cited in Klinkhammer , L’occupazione tedesca in Italia, p. 270.

  18. 18.

    Canevari, Graziani mi ha detto, p. 291.

  19. 19.

    Klinkhammer , L’occupazione tedesca in Italia, pp. 269–71.

  20. 20.

    Osti Guerrazzi, Storia della repubblica sociale italiana, p. 93.

  21. 21.

    Cited in Canevari, Graziani mi ha detto, p. 291.

  22. 22.

    Mimmo Franzinelli , Disertori: Una storia mai raccontata della seconda guerra mondiale (Milan: Mondadori, 2016), p. 224.

  23. 23.

    Dolfin, Con Mussolini nella tragedia, pp. 58–59.

  24. 24.

    Ibid., p. 94.

  25. 25.

    Deakin , The Six Hundred Days of Mussolini, p. 72.

  26. 26.

    Dolfin, Con Mussolini nella tragedia, pp. 78–79.

  27. 27.

    Canevari, Graziani mi ha detto, p. 294.

  28. 28.

    Dolfin, Con Mussolini nella tragedia, p. 95.

  29. 29.

    Klinkhammer , L’occupazione tedesca in Italia, p. 273.

  30. 30.

    Canevari, Graziani mi ha detto, p. 297.

  31. 31.

    Cited in Ibid., p. 298.

  32. 32.

    Ibid.; Dolfin, Con Mussolini nella tragedia, pp. 129–33.

  33. 33.

    Cited in Tamaro , Due anni di storia, II: 217.

  34. 34.

    Dolfin, Con Mussolini nella tragedia, p. 94.

  35. 35.

    Ibid., pp. 93–95.

  36. 36.

    Moseley, Mussolini, p. 97.

  37. 37.

    Dolfin, Con Mussolini nella tragedia, p. 116.

  38. 38.

    Giampaolo Pansa, L’esercito di Salò: La storia segreta dell’ultima battaglia di Mussolini (Milan: Mondadori, 1970), pp. 23–24.

  39. 39.

    Klinkhammer , L’occupazione tedesca in Italia, p. 273.

  40. 40.

    Ibid., p. 272.

  41. 41.

    Cited in Richard Lamb, War in Italy 1943–1945 (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1993), p. 87.

  42. 42.

    Dolfin, Con Mussolini nella tragedia, pp. 116–17.

  43. 43.

    NAW, T-821, 006905–18, Anfuso to Mussolini, 10 December 1943.

  44. 44.

    Pier Paolo Battistelli and Andrea Molinari, Le forze armate della RSI: Uomini e imprese dell’ultimo esercito di Mussolini (Milan: Hobby & Work, 2007), pp. 110–11.

  45. 45.

    Antonio Pietra, Guerriglia e contro guerriglia: Un bilancio militare della resistenza (Vicenza: Gino Rossato Editore, 2001), p. 68.

  46. 46.

    Dolfin, Con Mussolini nella tragedia, p. 97.

  47. 47.

    Pansa , Il Gladio e l’alloro, p. 21.

  48. 48.

    Canevari, Graziani mi ha detto, p. 301.

  49. 49.

    Ibid.

  50. 50.

    Dolfin, Con Mussolini nella tragedia, pp. 131–32.

  51. 51.

    Bertoldi , Salò, p. 74.

  52. 52.

    Dolfin, Con Mussolini nella tragedia, p. 132.

  53. 53.

    Gambara had had health problems in January 1944, and Mussolini had profited from his disabilities by removing him for being insufficiently Fascist. ACS, SPD, b. 86.

  54. 54.

    Pansa , Il gladio e l’alloro, p. 25.

  55. 55.

    Bocca , La repubbica di Mussolini, p. 68.

  56. 56.

    Pansa’s biting observation. Il gladio e l’alloro, p. 32.

  57. 57.

    Romualdi , Fascismo repubblicano, p. 101.

  58. 58.

    Patricelli, Il nemico in casa, p. 114; Bocca , La repubblica di Mussolini, p. 151; ACS, RSI, SPD, c. 16, f. 91, stf. 4. The decree was approved by the government on February 12, 1944. Verbali del Consiglio dei Ministri della Repubblica Sociale Italiana settembre 1943-aprile 1945, p. 293.

  59. 59.

    For examples of reprisals against the families of the draft dodgers, see Giulio Guderzo, L’altra guerra (Bologna: Il Mulino, 2002), p. 165.

  60. 60.

    Klinkhammer , L’occupazione tedesca in Italia, p. 280.

  61. 61.

    Rodolfo Graziani, Pace romana in Libia (Milan: Mondadori, 1937), p. 235.

  62. 62.

    “Rodolfo Graziani proclamato cittadino dell’Urbe,” Il Messaggero, 27 May 1938.

  63. 63.

    Cited in Pansa, Il gladio e l’alloro, p. 57.

  64. 64.

    Ibid., p. 57.

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  1. Department of History, West Chester University, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    H. James Burgwyn

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Burgwyn, H.J. (2018). RSI Armed Forces. In: Mussolini and the Salò Republic, 1943–1945. Italian and Italian American Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76189-3_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76189-3_5

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-76188-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-76189-3

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