FOREIGN NEWS
ITALY
Over the North African radio came a Texas soldier's voice:
This is General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Commander in Chief of the Allied Forces.
The Italian Government has surrendered its armed forces unconditionally. . . . I have granted a military armistice, the terms of which have been approved by the Governments of the United Kingdom, the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. . . . The armistice . . . becomes effective this instant.
The "instant" was 6:30 p.m., Sept. 8, 1943. All that day the wave lengths down the Mediterranean from Rome had be rated the Allies, promised a big battle against their invasion armies. Now General Eisenhower and his staff listened for a proclamation of surrender from the Italian Government. The minutes slipped away to 7:30 p.m. Then spoke the Piedmont soldier's voice of Premier Marshal Pietro Badoglio:
The Italian Government . . . with the object of avoiding further and more grievous harm to the nation, has requested an armistice from General Eisenhower. . . . This request has been granted. The Italian forces will therefore cease all acts of hostility against the Anglo-U.S. forces. . . . They will, however, oppose attack from any other quarter.
Thus death came to the Rome-Berlin Axis—six years, ten months, 14 days after it had been born. For Italy's 45,000,000 people, surrender came as a national shriving, a chance for national redemption. For the United Nations, Italian surrender brought an hour as high as the hour of French surrender at Compiègne had been low. They had ripped the southern rampart of a Festung crumbling in the east, flung the certainty of defeat at Adolf Hitler and his panicky satellites, put themselves a long stride toward the heart of Europe and final victory.
Parleys, Part I. The Badoglio regime made a first cautious approach for terms at the beginning of August, shortly after Benito Mussolini's downfall. In Lisbon five Italian envoys gave Allied representatives this message: Italy was "desperate"; the time had come to discuss "possible" armistice conditions. The Allied answer: "unconditional surrender."
The issues then rested, while Italy stewed. There were reports of comings & goings between the Quirinal and the Vatican, where the U.S. had Harold Tittmann, a foreign service veteran, and Britain had Francis D'Arcy Godolphin Osborne, heir presumptive to the Duchy of Leeds. Papal Envoy Enrico Galeazzi showed up in Lisbon, said he was bound for the U.S. to buy supplies for the Vatican. Financier Giovanni Fummi registered at London's Claridge's; presumably he was executing a mission for the Vatican.
Parleys, Part II. In mid-August an Italian officer, presumably General Castellano, aide to Marshal Badoglio, dropped in at Madrid, ostensibly on a mission that had nothing to do with surrender. Secretly he called on British Ambassador Sir Samuel Hoare. Next day the Italian officer appeared in Lisbon, called on British Ambassador Sir Ronald Hugh Campbell.
To Sir Samuel and Sir Ronald, General Castellano tendered a message from Marshal Badoglio: "When the Allies land in Italy, the Italian Government is prepared to join them against Germany."