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(Wednesday, September 8, 1943, 5:30 p.m. Central European Time; during the Allied invasion of Italy, part of the Italian Campaign of World War II) — Italy has signed an unconditional armistice with the Allies, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the commander in chief of Allied forces in the Mediterranean, announced today in a broadcast from Allied Headquarters in Algiers, “effective this instant.”
The surrender was signed on Sept. 3, 1943, in secret by a representative of Marshal Pietro Badoglio, Italy’s prime minister since the downfall of Benito Mussolini on July 25.
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General Eisenhower – the commander in chief of Allied forces in the Mediterranean – said the Italian Government had agreed to end all hostilities with the United Nations.
In a broadcast on Algiers radio, he said: “All Italians who now act to help eject the German aggressor from Italian soil will have the assistance and support of the United Nations.”
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Afterwards, in a personal message to the Italian people (delivered at 7:45 p.m. Central European Summer Time), Marshal Badoglio confirmed the surrender and even hinted his people should turn against their former allies, the Germans.
“The Italian forces will cease all acts of hostilities against the Anglo-American forces, wherever they may be. They will, however, oppose attacks of any other forces.”
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The Italian Government first suggested an armistice in August, three weeks after the fall of Mussolini during a meeting on neutral territory – probably Portugal.
When the surrender was finally signed on Sept. 3 in Sicily, it was agreed to keep it secret until the Allied invasion of Italy was well under way.
German radio has broadcast a furious attack of Marshal Badoglio for asking for an armistice, calling it “open treason.”
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Marshal Badoglio and the Italian King Victor Emmanuel had insisted to the Germans that there had been no surrender, but now the truth was out.
“With this,” said the German broadcaster, “a veil has been torn from a treacherous intrigue which for weeks had been enacted by an Italian clique, serfs to Jews and alien to their own people.”
The surrender indicates the Axis and the Tripartite Pact is now in tatters.
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But U.S. President Franklin D Roosevelt has said it is too early to assume this is the end of war in the Mediterranean.
In a broadcast from Washington (delivered at 9:50 p.m. Eastern War Time) he said: “The great news you have heard from General Eisenhower does not give you licence to settle back in your rocking chair and say ‘Well, that does it. We’ve got ’em on the run. Now we start celebrating.’ The time has not yet come for celebration.”
