At Fairfield Camp, near Cassibile in Sicily, Brigadier-General Giuseppe Castellano signs, for Marshal Pietro Badoglio, the armistice conditions presented by General Dwight D. Eisenhower. For the Allies Major-General Walter Bedell Smith, chief of staff, signs. The instrument is dated 3 September 1943. It is not the announcement of 8 September, and it is not the long instrument of Malta of 29 September.

After the Allied landing in Sicily on 10 July, the Fascist Grand Council dismisses Mussolini on 25 July; the king names Badoglio. Italy remains, outwardly, Germany’s ally. Castellano goes to Lisbon, then, on 31 August, to Termini Imerese and Cassibile. The king accepts the conditions. Castellano returns without written authorisation from Badoglio, who wants distance from the defeat.

The text, in twelve articles, requires the immediate cessation of all hostile activity by the Italian forces. Italy will use its best endeavours to deny the Germans facilities that might be used against the United Nations. Prisoners and internees of the United Nations are at once turned over to the Allied commander; none may be evacuated to Germany.

The Italian fleet and aircraft are transferred to points the Allied commander designates, with disarmament as he prescribes. Merchant shipping may be requisitioned. Corsica and all Italian territory, islands and mainland, are surrendered to the Allies as bases. Airfields and naval ports remain free to the Allies, whatever the rate of German evacuation, and are guarded by Italians until the Allies take over.

Italian forces withdraw to Italy from all theatres. The government guarantees, if need be, the use of all its armed forces to secure compliance. The Allied commander reserves any measure of protection and may install Allied military government over such parts of Italian territory as he deems necessary. He has full right of disarmament, demobilisation and demilitarisation. Article 12 postpones political, economic and financial conditions — they will come later.

The conditions are not to be made public without the prior approval of the Allied commander. The English text is the official one. Present are Harold Macmillan, Robert Murphy, Commodore Royer Dick, Generals Lowell W. Rooks and Kenneth Strong, and the interpreter Franco Montanari. Eisenhower is present at the signing, then leaves for North Africa.

The secret holds until 8 September, when Eisenhower announces the surrender, close to the Avalanche landing. Germany launches Operation Achse: it disarms Italian troops, occupies the north and the centre, and frees Mussolini on 12 September. The king, the government and most of the fleet go south, under the Allies.

It is not the peace treaty of 10 February 1947, which only in 1947 extinguishes this armistice. The signatures, at the tent in the olive grove, are Castellano’s and Smith’s.

Image: Giuseppe Castellano signing for Badoglio, with Walter Bedell Smith; 3 September 1943; public domain, Wikimedia Commons. Cropped to 16:9.

Source consulted: Armistice of Cassibile. Treaty text: Armistice with Italy, Fairfield Camp, Sicily, 3 September 1943.