1. Pietro Badoglio, 1st Duke of Addis Abeba, 1st Marquess of Sabotino, was an Italian general during both World Wars and the first viceroy of Italian East Africa.
22 Facts About Pietro Badoglio
1. 2.
Pietro Badoglio's father, Mario Badoglio, was a modest landowner, and his mother, Antonietta Pittarelli, was of middle-class background.
3.
Pietro Badoglio received the rank of second lieutenant in 1890.
4.
On 25 June 1926, Pietro Badoglio was promoted to the rank of Marshal of Italy.
5.
Pietro Badoglio was the first sole governor of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica from 1929 to 1933.
6.
On 24 January 1932, Pietro Badoglio proclaimed the end of Libyan resistance for the first time since the Italian invasion in 1911.
7.
On 3 October 1935, because the progress of De Bono's invasion of Abyssinia was judged by Mussolini to be too slow, Pietro Badoglio, who had in the meantime launched an epistolary campaign against Emilio de Bono, replaced de Bono as the commander.
8.
Pietro Badoglio asked for and was given permission to use chemical weapons, using the torture and murder of downed Italian pilot Tito Minniti during the Ethiopian "Christmas Offensive" as a pretext for doing so.
9.
Pietro Badoglio employed mustard gas to effectively destroy the Ethiopian armies confronting him on the northern front.
10.
Pietro Badoglio commanded the Italian forces at the First Battle of Tembien, the Battle of Amba Aradam, the Second Battle of Tembien, and the Battle of Shire.
11.
On 31 March 1936, Pietro Badoglio defeated Emperor Haile Selassie commanding the last Ethiopian army on the northern front at the Battle of Maychew.
12.
On 5 May 1936, Marshal Pietro Badoglio led the victorious Italian troops into Addis Ababa.
13.
On this occasion, Pietro Badoglio was appointed the first viceroy and governor general of Ethiopia and ennobled with the victory title of Duke of Addis Ababa ad personam.
14.
Pietro Badoglio returned to his duties as supreme chief of the Italian general staff.
15.
Pietro Badoglio was chief of staff from 1925 to 1940, and had the final say on the entire structure of the Armed Forces, including doctrine, selection of officers, and armaments, influencing the whole military environment.
16.
Pietro Badoglio did not oppose the decision of Mussolini and the King to declare war on France and Great Britain.
17.
Victor Emmanuel wanted an officer who was committed to continuing the Fascist system, which led him to choose Pietro Badoglio who had faithfully served Mussolini and committed an array of atrocities in Ethiopia, but who had a grudge against Mussolini for making him the scapegoat for the failed invasion of Greece in 1940.
18.
On 3 September 1943, General Giuseppe Castellano signed the Italian armistice with the Allies in Cassibile on behalf of Pietro Badoglio, who was named Prime Minister of Italy.
19.
Wary of the potentially hostile German response to the Armistice, Pietro Badoglio hesitated to formally announce the treaty.
20.
Pietro Badoglio continued to head the government for another nine months.
21.
Consequently, Pietro Badoglio was never tried for Italian war crimes committed in Africa.
22.
Pietro Badoglio died in the comune of his birth, Grazzano Pietro Badoglio, on 1 November 1956.