Giuseppe Castellano
| Giuseppe Castellano | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | September 12, 1893 Prato, Tuscany, Italy |
| Died | July 31, 1977 (aged 83) Porretta Terme, Emilia-Romagna, Italy |
| Allegiance |
 Kingdom of Italy
|
| Service/branch | Royal Italian Army |
| Years of service | 1913 – 1944 |
| Rank | Brigadier General |
| Battles/wars |
World War I World War II |
Giuseppe Castellano (September 12, 1893 in Prato – July 31, 1977 in Porretta Terme) was an Italian general who negotiated the Armistice between Italy and Allied armed forces on September 8, 1943.
Of Sicilian descent but born in Prato he was the son of a military man. His career in the Army was rapid and brilliant. In the First World War he was Captain of Artillery. In 1941, he was promoted to brigadier general during the Invasion of Yugoslavia, and was at that time, the youngest general in Italy. In 1942 he was called to the Army General Staff and the following year, to the High Command and collaborated as personal aide with General Vittorio Ambrosio.
He was a close friend of Benito Mussolini's son-in-law Galeazzo Ciano, who was the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs. Ciano was involved in ousting Mussolini in July 1943 after the Allied invasion of Sicily. Castellano sided with Ciano and had a prominent role in the events that led up to the fall of the fascist regime. He organised the arrest of Mussolini.
The new Prime Minister, Pietro Badoglio, sent Castellano to Lisbon in order to contact Allied diplomats to set the conditions for the surrender of Italy. He ordered Castellano to insist that any surrender of Italy was subject to a landing of Allied troops on the Italian mainland (the Allies at this point were holding Sicily and some minor islands). Badoglio also dared to ask for access to Allied military plans, which was not accepted.
After complicated negotiations the government and king accepted the conditions for the armistice. On September 3, 1943, Castellano, in lieu of Badoglio, and General Walter Bedell Smith, in place of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, signed the armistice agreement in the town of Cassibile, near Syracuse, in Sicily. The agreement was not announced until September 8, when Badoglio addressed the nation during a radio broadcast.
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