Cavallero, Marshal Ugo, 1880-1943

Cavallero was the Italian Chief of General Staff who succeeded BADOGLIO after Italy’s disastrous campaign in Greece. He was a man of considerable energy and drive and made every attempt to try to modernize the Italian Army. He was a great admirer of German efficiency and as such was distrusted by his colleagues who felt he was pro-German and only in power thanks to German support. He did improve Italy’s conduct of the war and forced the navy to co-operate by sending supplies to Libya. However he was at the mercy of MUSSOLINI’s whims and knew he would fall when the war turned against Italy. CIANO detested Cavallero and De Bono said of him ‘Cavallero is optimistic. That’s the only reason the Duce prefers him’ so neither were displeased when Mussolini dismissed him in January 1943 after the fall of Tripoli. He was interned for a while but tried to make a comeback when Mussolini fell and found that he was not trusted by either the Fascists or their opponents. He was found dead on a garden bench in the early morning of 14 September 1943.