Italian Co-Belligerent Army

The Italian Co-belligerent Army (Esercito Cobelligerante Italiano), Army of the South (Esercito del Sud), or Italian Liberation Corps (Corpo Italiano di Liberazione) were names applied to the Royal Italian Army during the period when it fought on the side of the Allies during World War II, that is to say from September 1943 onwards. During the same period, the pro-allied Italian Royal Navy and Italian Royal Air Force were known as the Italian Co-belligerent Navy and Italian Co-belligerent Air Force respectively. From September 1943, pro-Axis Italian forces became the National Republican Army of the newly formed Italian Social Republic.

The Italian Co-belligerent Army was the result of the Allied armistice with Italy on September 8, 1943; King Victor Emmanuel III dismissed Benito Mussolini as Prime Minister in July 1943 following the Allied invasion of Southern Italy, and nominated Marshal of Italy (Maresciallo d'Italia) Pietro Badoglio instead, who aligned Italy with the Allies.

Although the Co-belligerent Army provided over 20,000 men for the Allied cause, it was greatly outnumbered by the partisans of the Italian Resistance, who fielded up to 80,000 men on the Allied side, including perhaps 30,000 fighters in the Italian Communist Party's partisan units.

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