Two Armistices and a Surrender

Abstract

The publication, on November 6,1945, of a series of documents embodying the terms of the armistice arrangements successively entered into between the Italian Government and the American and British Commanders in the Mediterranean area makes possible an accurate, if necessarily belated, evaluation of their form, content, and import. The text serve as an interesting and accurate record of the degree and intensity of cohesion of the coalition which Italy then faced in the field, and afford an insight into the variform problems which an armistice with a naval power inevitably raises. Because the laying down of Italian arms constituted the first concrete implementation of the concept of unconditional surrender the two armistices in which it was embodied offer an illuminating indication of the juridical form and content of “unconditional surrender” in 1943 with which the surrender instruments and orders of 1945 can be compared.