Foreign Relations of the United States, Conferences at Washington and Quebec, 1943

Roosevelt Papers: Telegram

Prime Minister Churchill to President Roosevelt ¹

most secret

London, 4 August, 1943.

Former Naval Person to President Roosevelt personal and most secret nr 405.

The following story has been told to British Ambassador Campbell at Lisbon by newly arrived Italian Counsellor, Marquis D’Ajeta, who had been sent to get into touch with him by the Badoglio Government with the knowledge of the King and the General Staff. I send it to you for what if is worth which is substantial. Ambassador Campbell was instructed to make no comment. It certainly seems to give inside information. Though I am starting now Anthony² will be here and you can communicate both with him and me.

The King and the Army leaders have been preparing Coup D’État but this was precipitated (probably by a few days only) by the action of the Grand Fascist Council. Fascism in Italy is extinct.

Every vestige has been swept away. Italy turned Red overnight. In Turin and Milan there were Communist demonstrations which had to be put down by armed force. 20 years of Fascism has obliterated the middle class. There is nothing between the King and the patriots who have rallied round him and rampant Bolshevism (Corrupt passage³). They are in complete control. They have an armoured division just outside Rome and will march in if there is any sign of Italians weakening. There are 10,000 scattered about inside Rome, mostly with machine guns. If we bomb Rome again there will be a popular rising and the Germans will then march in and slaughter everybody. They have actually threatened use of gas. As many Italian troops as possible have been concentrated round Rome but they have no stomach for fighting. They have practically no weapons and are no match for even 1 well equipped German division.

In these circumstances, the King and Badoglio whose first thought was to make peace have no alternative but to put up a show of going on with the fight. Guariglia is to meet Ribbentrop (perhaps tomorrow) as a result of which there will be a communiqué stating in plainer terms than hitherto, that Italy is still the active ally of Germany. But this will be only pretence. The whole country is only longing for peace and above all to be rid of the Germans who are universally execrated.

If we cannot attack Germany immediately through the Balkans thus causing German withdrawal from Italy the sooner we land in Italy the better. The Germans, however, are resolved to defend it line by line. When we land in Italy we shall find little opposition and perhaps even active cooperation on the part of the Italians.

He never from start to finish made any mention of peace terms and his whole story as you will have observed was no more than a plea that we should save Italy from the Germans as well as from herself and do it as quickly as possible.

He expressed the hope that we should not heap abuse on the King and Badoglio (which would precipitate the blood bath) although a little of this would help them to keep up the pretence vis-à-vis the Germans.⁴

1. Sent to Washington by the United States Military Attaché, London, via Army channels; forwarded by the White House Map Room to Roosevelt, who was then at Birch Island, Ontario. An information copy was sent to Hull by Halifax on August 5, 1943 (740.00119 EW/8–543).
2. Eden.
3. This parenthetical phrase occurs in the source text. The missing garbled passage presumably referred to the Germans, since “Germans” must be the antecedent for “they” in the following sentence.
4. For further details of Lanza d’Ajeta’s conference with Campbell, see Eden’s telegram to Roosevelt of August 5, 1943, infra. Of. Garland and Smyth, pp. 297–298. For Lanza d’Ajeta’s own account of his mission to Lisbon, see Consiglio di Stato, Sezione speciale per l’epurazione, Memoria a svolgimento del ricorso del Consigliere di Legazione Blasco Lanza d’Ajeta contro la decisione della Commissione per l’epurazione del personale dipendente dal Ministero degli Affari Esteri (Rome: Tipografia Ferraiolo, 1946), pp. 79–81, 84–87; Documenti prodotti a corredo delta memoria del Consiglieri di Legazione Blasco Lanza d’Ajeta (Rome: Tipografia Ferraiolo, 1946), pp. 17–35.