1. Mario Roatta was the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Italian Army from October 1939 to March 1941 and from March 1941 to January 1942 its Chief of Staff and helped in preparing for the invasion of Yugoslavia.
29 Facts About Mario Roatta
1. 2.
Mario Roatta is best known for his role as the commander of the Italian Second Army in its repression against civilians, in the Slovene- and Croatian-inhabited areas of Italian-occupied and annexed Yugoslavia during World War II.
3.
Mario Roatta constructed a policy in which he attempted to eliminate the Yugoslav Partisans, helped manage relations with the authorities of the puppet Independent State of Croatia, and "greatly advanced and systematized" collaboration with the Chetniks.
4.
In line with Circular 3C's objectives Mario Roatta ordered summary executions, hostage taking, reprisals, internments, burning of houses and whole villages, and the deportation of 25,000 people, who were placed in Italian concentration camps at Rab, Gonars, Monigo, Renicci d'Anghiari, Chiesanuova and elsewhere.
5.
Mario Roatta was born 2 February 1887 in Modena, Kingdom of Italy to Marie Antoinette Richard, a French native of Savoy and Giovan Battista Roatta, who was a native of the province of Cuneo.
6.
Mario Roatta's father was a captain in the Royal Italian Army.
7.
When he was nineteen Mario Roatta became an active soldier in the army and was promoted in 1906 to the rank of second lieutenant in the 26th infantry regiment stationed in Turin.
8.
Mario Roatta was appointed a captain in August 1914 and assigned to the Army Staff Corps.
9.
From 1934 to 1936, Mario Roatta headed the Italian Military Intelligence Service.
10.
Mario Roatta initially aided Galeazzo Ciano by helping direct "Italian assistance to the Nationalists on a day-to-day basis".
11.
In 1936 Ciano successfully persuaded Mussolini that Mario Roatta be given command of the Corps of Volunteer Troops.
12.
In January 1942, Mario Roatta had become the commander of the Italian Second Army, succeeding General Vittorio Ambrosio.
13.
Between 30 January and 9 February 1942, Mario Roatta discussed with Ambrosio to create a Policy Directive on his command's relationship with the Croats, Chetniks, and Partisans.
14.
Mario Roatta was mostly concerned with removing a large number of Italian forces present in Zones II and III and reorganizing those left into strong garrisons to lower troop casualties.
15.
On 1 March 1942, Mario Roatta issued the Circular 3C which was distributed to ranks up to battalion command in areas occupied and annexed by the Italians.
16.
Mario Roatta justified this mass internment with the intense danger that the rebels posed.
17.
Mario Roatta demanded that all males, able-bodied or wounded, near rebel groups to be seen as insurgents if they wore military uniforms, had band badges, or carried military equipment.
18.
Mario Roatta later explained his policy in more detail in his postwar memoirs:.
19.
Mario Roatta mentioned the need to extend the plan to Dalmatia and for the construction of concentration camps.
20.
On 16 September 1942, Mario Roatta reported to the Italian Supreme Command that he had a total of 12,320 Chetniks under his command and the possibility of arming 6,000 more.
21.
Mario Roatta did not directly address the transfer of Jews and ultimately few were sent.
22.
On 31 October 1942, in response to the letter of protest by Lorkovic, Mario Roatta claimed that the acts were not of "mass character" and that they were carried out by individuals and small groups uncontrolled by the MVAC or carried out by the communists.
23.
Mario Roatta denied that the Italians supported any terrorist activity against the Croats and that intervention urging peace was undertaken when they had witnessed them.
24.
Mario Roatta used his new authority to assign both military and civilian resources to work constructing bunkers, installing anti-invasion obstacles on the most likely Allied landing beaches as well as laying barbed wire and mines.
25.
Mario Roatta was replaced in command of the Sixth Army by General Alfredo Guzzoni.
26.
On 5 March 1945, Mario Roatta escaped from the Virgilio Army Hospital in Rome.
27.
Mario Roatta fled to Spain, where he lived under the protection of dictator Francisco Franco.
28.
Mario Roatta's sentence was overturned by the Italian High Court of Appeal in 1948.
29.
Mario Roatta returned to Rome in 1966, and lived there until his death on 7 January 1968.