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London and Washington accepted this as a "serious proposal." Moscow was kept posted. A few days later the Allied armistice terms reached Lisbon. In the British Embassy, with U.S. Charge d'Affaires George Kennan present, the terms were given to General Castellano. Not long afterward several high officers flew up from North Africa, talked long and earnestly to Marshal Badoglio's colleague at a dinner that coursed through a whole night and into the dawn.
General Castellano set off for Rome by a devious route. But the Badoglio Government, worried over his failure to report promptly, had sent out another mission to Lisbon. Again an Italian general was chosen, but now, as evidence of good faith, a captured British officer accompanied him. The officer was red-faced, one-armed, one-eyed Major General Adrian Carton de Wiart, one of the Empire's famed warriors, who had been captured by the Italians in 1941. London's Express called General de Wiart a "real-life, elusive Pimpernel." Not obliged to return to Italy, he turned up in London, while his Italian traveling companion went on to General Eisenhower's headquarters in Algiers.
Parleys, Part III. General Castellano, meanwhile, had reached Rome. He quickly left again, this time for Sicily, where he met General Eisenhower's staff and the second general sent out by Marshal Badoglio. Presumably in Palermo, the parleys entered their final phase. In that city, on Aug. 29, American ack-ack gunners received startling orders. A Savoia-Marchetti bomber headed for the airfield was not to be fired on. The big plane slid down, and two Italian officers stepped out. On the 30th it took off again, escorted by three U.S. Lightnings. On the 31st it was back again and the same officers deplaned.
A last-minute misgiving by the Badoglio Government almost snagged the parleys. The Marshal wanted no announcement of the armistice until after the main Allied landing in Italy. General Eisenhower replied with a 24-hour ultimatum: the Allies must fix the timing of the announcement, or Italy would suffer the full shock of Allied air power. The Marshal bowed. On Sept. 3, while Generals Eisenhower and Sir Harold R. L. G. Alexander looked on, the Armistice was signed by U.S. Major General Walter B. Smith for the Allies, by General Castellano for Italy.
Terms. The full text of the armistice of Sicily embraced many thousand words. An official summary showed that the Italian capitulation was as sweeping as the German surrender of 1918. The Badoglio regime agreed to:
> Cease all hostile activity.
> Withdraw its armed forces from France and the Balkans.
> Turn over all Italian territory and French Corsica for Allied military purposes.
>Deny to the Germans the use of facilities that might be turned against the United Nations.
> Grant to the Allies the use of airfields and harbors.
>Hand over all warships, merchant marine and planes.
> Return all Allied prisoners of war or internees.
> Accept political, economic and financial conditions to be imposed at Allied discretion.