Week 120

 

I had a much longer one planned, but I had a rather bad fever this week; therefore you'll have to make do with the beginning, since the rest still needs to be edited together.

 

Among the first, more substantial, official initiatives taken by gen. Pietro Badoglio in his new function as Extraordinary Commissary for Venezia-Giulia – a charge he had received in the immediate aftermath of D'Annunzio's raid and takeover of Fiume, on the morning of September 13^th – was the replacement of gen. Mario Nicolis Di Robilant, at the time commander of the VIII Army of Trieste, which Badoglio suggested, or rather demanded, in a rather matter of fact fashion.

Whatever the decision made by the Government concerning Fiume – wrote Badoglio on September 19^th – it is necessary to remove gen. Di Robilant from war zone, [since he] is violently [mortally, in another version] hated by all the citizens of Fiume and by all those within Venezia-Giulia who support the cause of Italian Fiume and who represent the vast majority. The aforementioned General is quite disliked by the Army as well, since his order given to the […] commander of the XXVI Army Corp on September 13^th to fire upon the weapons and gasoline deposits in Fiume, order which I annulled and which could have had disastrous consequences, has become common knowledge.

I ask therefore, as soon as the replacement has been deliberated, to call back gen. Di Robilant to Rome and send me here either gen. Caviglia or gen. Morrone. […]

Badoglio didn't obtain either of the two (and would later renew his suggestions of Caviglia as the most suitable candidate to lead a possible repression), but appeared nonetheless satisfied with the resolution devised (in a very short time, as the reply was sent before night the same day) by the Government, as he concurred with both Nitti and the Ministry of War that the replacement of Di Robilant was going to be smoother if Badoglio himself relieved the former commander of his VIII Army, given how his new position already established him as Di Robilant's direct superior. Furthermore this allowed for the customary and more dignified formula of “being called to Rome to confer with the Minister of War” rather than being relieved of command (without a new suitable destination being ready) and replaced by another general.

That a replacement was not only advisable but necessary, at least from Badoglio's point of view, followed – and was somewhat implicit in Badoglio's own designation – from Di Robilant's quite unfortunate reputation with the notables and population of Fiume, echoed on the “national” press by his alleged “anti-national” sentiments, due to his participation to the inter-Allied inquest committee which had investigated the incidents of July 1919 and therefore to the deliberations of the aforementioned committee, inclusive of the withdrawal of a large portion of the Italian occupation force and of the institution of an “Anglo-Maltese” police force to ensure public order in town, at the head of which – according to the claims of the Italian annexationists of Fiume – were to be placed “Serbian elements”.

In this regard, his reputation had not been improved by his immediate attempt to take the most energetic – albeit probably misguided, as pointed out by Badoglio – measures to return Fiume under the control of the Italian regular Army, or whatever part thereof which wished for such an outcome. But already before the rumors of Di Robilant's willingness to open fire on the city had begun to spread, the news that he was personally going to Fiume to assess the situation and attempt to restore discipline to the military ranks and officers, one of many in a recurrent pilgrimage of commanders in search of their lost units, had sparked an almost violent outcry in town where volunteers and population were already inciting the troops to resist any other call to order, so that Di Robilant had chosen to remain in Abbazia, just a few minutes across the armistice line.

The substantially different approach of Badoglio to the resolution of the situation of Fiume – certainly more cautious, and apparently focused on the perspective of a “political” definition which limited the responsibilities of the military to strictly “military” affairs – which in substance already called for a replacement of Di Robilant is manifest from the early instructions given by Badoglio correcting the previous ones from the commander of the VIII Army, as seen in the informative report of gen. Asclepia Gandolfo – commander of the XXVI Army Corp, in Abbazia, September 15^th 1919

To Di Robilant's orders:

isolate the city of Fiume and prevent deliveries and communications by land: 1) by establishing, by means of the incoming troops placed at my disposal, a corral surrounding the city […] 2) by interrupting every communication by phone, telegraph, roads and railroads, with the execution of cuts and barriers and by blowing up, where necessary, the infrastructures; 3) by destroying with gun fire, as soon as they have been properly located, the depots of fuel, arms and foodstuff within the city; 4) by making use of fire without hesitation in order to enforce the observance of the road blockades and to push back the rebel groups who may disturb the establishment of the corral […]

Badoglio, welcoming certain observations from Gandolfo himself, had produced the subsequent modifications:

1. the corral around the city must be established with no haste. To my remark that I would rather deploy to the first line […] the new brigades, as I deemed ill-advised to make use immediately of the Bersaglieri Brigade, previously deployed here, but which might warrant certain doubts having lived here for a month in close contact with Fiume, he agreed that I awaited the arrival of the Bologna and Firenze Brigades; 2) he gave me as an absolute prescription to avoid any bloodshed; 3) […] that the interruptions surrounding the city need to be limited to a strictly essential minimum;

Last he added that, before making further modifications to these orders, he was going to contact the Government in order to obtain clear and written instructions, in order for each one's responsibility to be set.

 

Badoglio had also provided instructions to moderate the terms – both in duration and choice of words – of the bans which the Italian authorities intended to deliver into Fiume as a mean to persuade the men to return to their corps. A perspective, this one, which Badoglio came soon to regard as quite remote, at least on a short term. While, on the contrary, the “harsh” wording of the original proclamations, echoing Nitti's own speech of September 13^th to the Chamber and to an extent his instructions of the previous day, appeared more useful as a propaganda instrument against the Italian Government.

As shown in a summary from the annexationist newspaper La Vedetta d'Italia - September 16^th 1919 – which published D'Annunzio's retort to the news that the former chief of staff of the occupation force, col. Roncaglia had informed that “the officers who remain in Fiume will be regarded as deserters to the enemy”. Addressing Roncaglia directly, the “actual commander of the Italian troops in Fiume” could not hide his surprise and dismay

I am informed […] that all the Officers who have remained in Fiume of Italy, remained there to defend the honor of Italy and the honor of the Army, in the face of a coward deranged world, glorious and luminous defenders like never before, will be regarded as “deserters to the enemy”. I hear this despicable word came out of You […] It's truly worth of the infamous Government of which You are now both servant and accomplice.

It doesn't affect me, nor my comrades. We are, for the most part, wounded, mutilated, many times decorated for valor, proud of having committed our indefatigable devotion to the Motherland […] But if you don't swallow back that despicable word – and I mean despicable in the lowest possible sense – You'll earn from me the brand you deserve, in the face of the Nation and of the world.

I promise.

And this is but an advice.

Italy is with me, with us; the true Italy, everlasting Italy.

The enemy surrounds Fiume, which I'll defend by every mean as long as I draw breath.

Here is the truth; falsehood around.