Abstract
Mario Roatta took command of the Second Army on January 19, 1942. He had been chosen, according to his underling Colonel Zanussi, because he had just produced a long report for Ugo Cavallero on the Balkan situation, and was thus accredited as an expert on the subject. The general chief of staff had wasted no time in defenestrating him from the post of army chief of staff, where he represented a dangerous rival, and putting him in a difficult situation. Cavallero, however, according to Zanussi, considered Roatta to be the right man to unsnarl the intricate Balkan tangle and defeat the rebellion.1
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Notes
G. Zanussi (1946), Guerra e catastrofe d’Italia. Giugno 1940–giugno 1943, vol. I (Rome: Corso), pp. 180 and following.
O. Talpo (2000), Dalmazia. Una cronaca per la storia (1942) (Rome: Sme), p. 36.
G. Angelini (1946), Fuochi di bivacco in Croazia (Rome: Regionale), p. 79.
T. Ferenc (1999), “Si ammazza troppo poco”. Condannati a morte—ostaggi— passati per le armi nella provincia di Lubiana 1941–1943. Documenti (Ljubljiana: Istituto per la Storia Moderna), p. 21.
On the closing of Ljubljana, see M. Cuzzi (1998), L’occupazione italiana della Slovenia (1941–1943) (Rome: Stato Maggiore Esercito), pp. 174 and following;
J. H. Burgwyn (2005), Empire on Adriatic. Mussolini’s Conquest of Yugoslavia 1941–1943 (New York: Enigma Books), p. 141.
G. Piemontese (1946), Ventinove mesi di occupazione italiana della Provincia di Lubiana. Considerazioni e documenti (Ljubljiana: no publisher), p. 67, document of July 4, 1942.
The most recent book to whose bibliography we can refer is that of A. Kersevan (2008), Lager italiani. Pulizia etnica e campi di concentramento per civili jugoslavi 1941–1943 (Rome: Nutrimenti).
There are, however, examples of authors who considered the war of insurrection legal. See, for example, M. Monterisi (1938), Diritto di guerra terrestre, marittimo e aeronautico (Milan: Hoepli), pp. 92 and following.
E. Cataldi (1995), Le stagioni balcaniche. Il II battaglione complementi Granatieri di Sardegna nella guerriglia jugoslava (gennaio 1942–settembre 1943) (Rome: SEA), p. 77.
P. Brignoli (1973), Santa Messa per i miei fucilati. Le spietate rappresaglie italiane contro i partigiani in Croazia dal diario di un cappellano (Milan: Longanesi), p. 15.
On the limits of the Italian army, regarding the training of officers and soldiers, see G. Rochat and G. Massobrio (1978), Breve storia dell’esercito italiano dal 1861 al 1943 (Turin: Einaudi), pp. 282 and following.
On the period before the First World War, M. Knox (2007), To the Threshold of Power, 1922/33. Origins and Dynamics of the Fascist and National Socialist Dictatorship, Volume 1 (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press), p. 108.
M. Knox (2002), Alleati di Hitler. Le regie forze armate, il regime fascista e la guerra del 1940–1943 (Milan: Garzanti), p. 62.
On the structural limits of the Italian officer corps, see also L. Ceva (1999), Storia delle forze armate in Italia (Turin: Utet), p. 262; Rochat, Le guerre italiane, p. 178; Knox, Alleati di Hitler, p. 62.
See, for example, M. Strazza (2010), Senza via di scampo. Gli stupri nelle guerre mondiali (Campanile Villa d’Agri: no publisher), Chapter. IV.
In Greece, however, there were also episodes of pillaging. On the subject, see A. Kedros, (1966), Storia della Resistenza di Grecia (Milan: Feltrinelli), pp. 130, 242.
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© 2013 Amedeo Osti Guerrazzi
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Guerrazzi, A.O. (2013). Roatta. In: The Italian Army in Slovenia. Italian and Italian American Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137281203_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137281203_4
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