Rodolfo Graziani: Story of an Italian General—> An exhaustive work of comprehensive research and study in various files and paperwork —> Beautifully illustrated with many rare and unpublished photographs —> A must-have for military historians, enthusiasts, modellers, video/tabletop gamers and those interested in the Second World War ‘An enemy forgiven is more dangerous than a thousand foes.’ Rodolfo Graziani, marshal of Italy, viceroy of Ethiopia, and one of Mussolini’s most valued generals, remains to this day a divisive figure in his homeland. Revered by some Italians as a patriot and vilified by others a murderer, his reputation abroad endures as one of infamy. To the people of Libya, he is the man who hanged Omar al-Mukhtar; in Ethiopia, the one behind the poison gas bombings; to the British, he is the buffoon-like Italian general whose troops surrendered en masse. But what is the true story of Rodolfo Graziani? This rigorously researched biography draws on private letters and secret communications to reveal a fascinating portrait of fascist Italy’s most notorious military leader. What emerges is a man of glaring contradictions: a doting family man and a violent soldier. Graziani was a key figure of Italy’s momentous 1930s, enjoying widespread popularity during the height of Mussolini’s dictatorship, his exploits in Libya and Ethiopia captured the public’s imagination. After his death, he was largely forgotten but in 2012, the mausoleum erected in his honour has sparked fresh controversy. |
Contents
Disaster in the Desert | |
A Home in the Mountains | |
Postcards from Libya | |
Ethiopia and the Use of Poison | |
Marquis of Neghelli and Executioner of Addis Ababa | |
Twenty Months on Lake Garda | |
A Sentence Which is More Like an Acquittal | |
What Remains? | |
Bibliography | |