World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, the Commissione Italiana d'Armistizio con la Francia ("Italian Armistice Commission with France") or CIAF was a temporary civil and military body charged with implementing the Franco-Italian armistice of 24 June 1940 and harmonising it with the Franco-German armistice of 22 June. It had broad authority over the military, economic, diplomatic and financial relations between France and Italy until the Italo-German occupation of France ( Operation ANTON) on 11 November 1942. Thereafter its powers were gradually transferred to the Fourth Army, which was under the command of General Mario Vercellino and in occupation of southern France. The headquarters of the CIAF was in
Turin
Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...
and it was subordinate to the ''
Comando Supremo
''Comando Supremo'' (High Command) was the highest command echelon of the Italian armed forces between June 1941 and May 1945. Its predecessor, the ''Stato Maggiore Generale'' (Supreme General Staff), was a purely advisory body with no direct cont ...
'' (Italian supreme command). It liaised with the
German Armistice Commission
The German Armistice Commission (german: Waffenstillstandskommission, WAKO) was a military body charged with supervising the implementation of the Franco-German Armistice, signed on 22 June 1940, in German-occupied France during World War II.Un ...
(''Waffenstillstandskommission'', WAKO) in Wiesbaden.
Structure
Structurally, the CIAF had a presidency (''presidenza'') and four subcommissions (''sottocommissioni'') for the
Army
An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...
,
Navy
A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It in ...
,
Air Force
An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an ...
and "General Affairs" (''Affari Generali''). The first representative of the army was General
Carlo Vecchiarelli
Carlo Vecchiarelli (10 January 1884 – 13 December 1948) was an Italian general. He was a veteran combatant of the First World War. Between the two world wars he held the positions of Military Attaché at the Italian Embassy in Prague, Honora ...
, of the navy Admiral Ildebrando Goiran and of the air force General Aldo Pellegrini. The French were represented at Turin by a delegation of their own (the ''Délégation française à la Commission italienne d'Armistice'' or DFCIA) and four subdelegations corresponding to the subcommissions. A Mixed Delegation (''Delegazione Mista'') was sent to
Corsica
Corsica ( , Upper , Southern ; it, Corsica; ; french: Corse ; lij, Còrsega; sc, Còssiga) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 18 regions of France. It is the fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of ...
, where it was sidelined after the
Italian occupation of Corsica
Italian-occupied Corsica refers to the military (and administrative) occupation by the Kingdom of Italy of the island of Corsica during the Second World War, from November 1942 to September 1943. After an initial period of increased control over th ...
in November 1942, when a Political and General Affairs Office (''Ufficio Politico e Affari Vari'') was established there subordinate to the Fourth Army.
General Affairs was concerned mainly with protecting Italian emigrants in France. On 4 February 1941, it began establishing Civil Assistance and Repatriation Delegations (''Delegazioni Civili Rimpatrio e Assistenza'') or DRAs in French cities. These were originally staffed by consular officials acting as reserve officers, but on 15 January 1943 they were converted into consular offices subordinate to the liaison office of the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the government department responsible for the state's diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral relations affairs as well as for providing support for a country's citizens who are abroad. The enti ...
at the headquarters of the Fourth Army. On 15 April, the General Affairs subcommission was suppressed. It had been instrumental in repatriating 70,000 Italians between October 1940 and April 1943.
History
On 5 November 1940, a subcommission for Administration of Occupied Territories (''Amministrazione dei Territori Occupati'') was set up. It appointed civil commissioners in the occupied communities of
Bessans
Bessans is a commune in the Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France. It is located in the valley of Maurienne and crossed by the Arc river. Nestled in the center of a former glacial through, it is renowned ...
,
Bramans
Bramans is a former commune in the Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France. On 1 January 2017, it was merged into the new commune Val-Cenis.Fontan, Isola,
Lanslebourg
Lanslebourg-Mont-Cenis is a former commune in the Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France. On 1 January 2017, it was merged into the new commune Val-Cenis.Menton
Menton (; , written ''Menton'' in classical norm or ''Mentan'' in Mistralian norm; it, Mentone ) is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region on the French Riviera, close to the Italian border.
Me ...
,
Montgenèvre
Montgenèvre (; oc, Montginebre; Italian: ''Monginevro'') is a commune on the Italian border in the Hautes-Alpes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in Southeastern France. In 2018, it had a population of 456.
Geography
Mon ...
, Ristolas and Séez; they remained active down to the Italian armistice with the Allies (8 September 1943). Later, another subcommission for Armaments (''Armamenti'') supervised French weapons factories between the Italian border and the Rhône, and placed some under joint control of French companies and the Italian war production office, Fabbriguerra.
On 19 February 1942, a permanent Italo-French Economic Commission (''Commissione Economica Italo-Francese'') was set up in Rome, where it held monthly meetings. The head of the Italian delegation was Amedeo Giannini and of the French Joseph Sanguinetti. It was distinct from the Subcommission for Economic and Financial Affairs (''Sottocommissione Affari Economici e Finanziari'', SCAEF) established under Tomasso Lazzari in Turin. SCAEF was in charge of the spoils of war, policing the alpine border, Italian rights in French colonial harbours, maritime traffic and Italian property in France. Another subcommission was set up in Turin to foster trade between Italy and
German-occupied France
The Military Administration in France (german: Militärverwaltung in Frankreich; french: Occupation de la France par l'Allemagne) was an interim occupation authority established by Nazi Germany during World War II to administer the occupied z ...
, and yet another body was working at the Italian embassy in Paris to the same end. Finally, Teodoro Pigozzi of
FIAT
Fiat Automobiles S.p.A. (, , ; originally FIAT, it, Fabbrica Italiana Automobili di Torino, lit=Italian Automobiles Factory of Turin) is an Italian automobile manufacturer, formerly part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and since 2021 a subsidiar ...
had been appointed ''commissario commerciale'' to France by the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Currency Exchange. These various bodies did not coordinate their work effectively.
The work of the CIAF was complicated by the re-opening of the Italian embassy in Paris on 4 February 1941 and the appointment of an ambassador, Gino Buti, on 20 February 1942. Although Buti's instructions required him not to deal with issues covered by the armistice, the French took advantage of his presence to bypass the CIAF. After occupation of unoccupied France in November 1942, the CIAF retained control only of the original occupied territory (demarcated by the "green line", ''linea verde''). By early December 1942, the CIAF was moribund and the leader of the French delegation, Admiral Émile-André Duplat, asked President Arturo Vacca-Maggiolini whether it in fact still existed. Both Italy and Germany resolved to maintain their armistice commissions for legal purposes, although they would not be subordinated to the requirements of the occupying forces. In these unusual circumstances, Vacca-Maggiolini was forced to justify his role to General Vercellino on 31 December 1942, and it was not until 10 March 1943 that the CIAF's residual role was clarified by
Chief of the General Staff The Chief of the General Staff (CGS) is a post in many armed forces (militaries), the head of the military staff.
List
* Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff ( United States)
* Chief of the General Staff (Abkhazia)
* Chief of General Staff (Af ...
Vittorio Ambrosio
Vittorio Ambrosio (28 July 1879 – 19 November 1958) was an Italian general who served in the Italo-Turkish War, World War I, and World War II. During the last phase of World War II Ambrosio supported the fall of Benito Mussolini and Italy's ...
, who on 20 March abolished the separate subcommissions of the service branches.
In Africa and Asia
The CIAF was responsible for overseeing French forces east of the Rhône, in North Africa and in the Levant. It therefore established a presence in France's colonies. A General Delegation (''Delegazione Generale'') was sent to
Algiers
Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques d ...
and a Mixed Delegation to
Djibouti
Djibouti, ar, جيبوتي ', french: link=no, Djibouti, so, Jabuuti officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Somalia to the south, Ethiopia to the southwest, Eritrea in the north, and the Red ...
. These contained a variety of subcommissions and control sections. General Gaëtan Germain in Djibouti convinced the armistice commission that it was inadvisable and impractical to demilitarise the colony, in which approximately 8,000 French soldiers (with tanks and airplanes) thus remained on guard.
In the French colony of
Chad
Chad (; ar, تشاد , ; french: Tchad, ), officially the Republic of Chad, '; ) is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic ...
, concern that an Italian armistice commission would arrive was one factor in Governor
Félix Éboué
Adolphe Sylvestre Félix Éboué (; 26 December 1884 – 17 May 1944) was a French colonial administrator and Free French leader. He was the first black French man appointed to a high post in the French colonies, when appointed as Governor o ...
's decision to rally to
Free France
Free France (french: France Libre) was a political entity that claimed to be the legitimate government of France following the dissolution of the Third Republic. Led by French general , Free France was established as a government-in-exile ...
on 26 August 1940. No commission ever operated in Chad.
An armistice commission under General Fedele de Giorgis arrived in
Beirut
Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...
late in August 1940 to oversee the implementation of the armistice terms in Syria and Lebanon. It included 50 Italian officials plus a handful of Germans.
Rudolf Rahn
Rudolf Rahn (16 March 1900 – 7 January 1975) was a German diplomat who served the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany. As a member of the Party, and as Plenipotentiary to the Italian Social Republic in the closing stages of the Second World War, h ...
arrived in May 1941 to head a German sub-commission under the Italians.
In
Tunisia
)
, image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg
, map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa
, image_map2 =
, capital = Tunis
, largest_city = capital
, ...
, the CIAF ordered the demilitarization of the
Mareth Line
The Mareth Line was a system of fortifications built by France in southern Tunisia in the late 1930s. The line was intended to protect Tunisia against an Italian invasion from its colony in Libya. The line occupied a point where the routes into ...
, which rendered it useless to the Italians and Germans when the British advanced on Tunisia from Libya in early 1943. The first of the French anti-Jewish laws, the '' Statuts des juifs'', was published in Tunisia by a decree of Bey Ahmad II, countersigned by Resident-General Jean-Pierre Esteva, on 30 November 1940. The CIAF protested the damaging effects of this decree on the Italian property owners, many of them Jewish, in Tunisia.
On 27 May 1942, General Bianini, head of the CIAF post in
Tangier
Tangier ( ; ; ar, طنجة, Ṭanja) is a city in northwestern Morocco. It is on the Moroccan coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel. The town is the capi ...
, died of his wounds after an assassination attempt by an Algerian.
Executive officers
;Presidents
*General Pietro Pintor (27 June 1940 – 7 December 1940), died in office
*General
Camillo Grossi
Camillo Grossi (Grosseto, 30 September 1876 – Turin, 16 June 1941) was an Italian general during the interwar period and World War II. He was also a member of the Italian Senate from 5 April 1939 until his death in office in 1941.
Biograp ...
(8 December 1940 – 16 June 1941), died in office
*General Arturo Vacca-Maggiolini (18 June 1941 – 8 September 1943)
;Secretaries general
*General Fernando Gelich (20 August 1940 – 20 December 1942)
*Colonel Evaristo Fioravanti (20 December 1942 – 8 September 1943)