On 9 September Badoglio, King Victor Emmanuel, the government and military leaders fled the capital for the south. The new prime minister, Pietro Badoglio, started covert negotiations with the allies but the armistice wasn’t declared until 8 September, giving the Germans time to reinforce their positions and move troops down from northern Italy.
In late July, Mussolini’s own Grand Council voted the Duce out of power and arrested him. Mid-month, Rome was heavily bombed for the first time. Early in the month the allies landed in Sicily and the “Italian campaign” began. The shift in Italy’s position happened over the course of July 1943. But the background to that, the impact of it on Italians, the battles fought by the Italian resistance – even the existence itself of the resistance – is less familiar territory. What tends to be remembered is that Rome changed sides from the axis to the allies halfway through.
T he position of Italy during the second world war is complex.
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