Italian Civil War

The Italian Civil War (Italian: Guerra civile italiana, pronounced [ˈɡwɛrra tʃiˈviːle itaˈljaːna]) was a civil war in the Kingdom of Italy fought during the Italian campaign of World War II between Italian fascists and Italian partisans (mostly politically organized in the National Liberation Committee) and, to a lesser extent, the Italian Co-belligerent Army.

Italian Civil War
Part of the Italian Campaign in World War II
Clockwise from top left: Italian partisans in Ossola; National Republican Army troops inspected by Kurt Mälzer; Royal Italian parachutists en route to the drop zone of Operation Herring; the dead body of Benito Mussolini, Claretta Petacci and other executed fascists on display in Milan.
Date 8 September 1943 – 2 May 1945 (1 year, 7 months, 3 weeks and 3 days) Location Italy Result Royal Italian and Italian Resistance victory Liberation of Italy from Nazism and Italian Fascism: end of German occupation and collapse of the collaborationist Italian Social Republic German Army in Italy surrenders Execution of Benito Mussolini
Belligerents
Italian Resistance  Kingdom of Italy Supported by:  United Kingdom  United States	Italian Social Republic Supported by:  Germany
Commanders and leaders
Ivanoe Bonomi Alcide De Gasperi Luigi Longo Ferruccio Parri Alfredo Pizzoni Raffaele Cadorna Jr. Victor Emmanuel III Prince Umberto Pietro Badoglio Giovanni Messe	Benito Mussolini  Rodolfo Graziani Renato Ricci Alessandro Pavolini  Junio Valerio Borghese
Strength
CLN / CLNAI: 300,000–350,000[1][2] Co-belligerent Army: 190,000–244,000[3] Total: c. 545,000	520,000[1]
Casualties and losses
CLN / CLNAI: 35,828 killed 21,168 seriously wounded[4] unknown captured or lightly injured Co-belligerent Army: 5,927 killed[5] unknown wounded, captured, and missing	RSI: 34,770 killed[6] 13,170 regular military 21,600 anti-partisan National Guards and paramilitaries unknown wounded, captured, and missing
c. 124,000 post-armistice civilian deaths;[7] 42,600 killed by post-armistice air raids[7]

Many Italian fascists were soldiers or supporters of the Italian Social Republic, a collaborationist puppet state created under the direction of Nazi Germany during its occupation of Italy. The Italian Civil War lasted from around 8 September 1943 (the date of the Armistice of Cassibile) to 2 May 1945 (date of the Surrender of Caserta). The Italian partisans and the Italian Co-belligerent Army of the Kingdom of Italy, sometimes materially supported by the Allies, simultaneously fought against the occupying Nazi German armed forces. Armed clashes between the fascist National Republican Army of the Italian Social Republic and the Italian Co-belligerent Army of the Kingdom of Italy were rare,[8] while clashes between the Italian fascists and the Italian partisans were common. There were also some internal conflicts within the partisan movement.[9] In this context, Germans, sometimes helped by Italian fascists, committed several atrocities against Italian civilians and troops.

The event that later gave rise to the Italian Civil War was the deposition and arrest of Benito Mussolini on 25 July 1943 by King Victor Emmanuel III, after which Italy signed the Armistice of Cassibile on 8 September 1943, ending its war with the Allies. However, German forces began occupying Italy immediately prior to the armistice, through Operation Achse, and then invaded and occupied Italy on a larger scale after the armistice, taking control of northern and central Italy and creating the Italian Social Republic (RSI), with Mussolini installed as leader after he was rescued by German paratroopers in the Gran Sasso raid.[10] As a result, the Italian Co-belligerent Army was created to fight against the Germans, while other Italian troops continued to fight alongside the Germans in the National Republican Army. In addition, a large Italian resistance movement started a guerrilla war against the German and Italian fascist forces.[11] The anti-fascist victory led to the execution of Mussolini, the liberation of the country from dictatorship, and the birth of the Italian Republic under the control of the Allied Military Government of Occupied Territories, which was operational until the Treaty of Peace with Italy in 1947.[12]