Giacomo Carboni

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Giacomo Carboni" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (October 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Giacomo Carboni
Carboni circa 1940
Chief of the Servizio Informazioni Militare
In office 3 November 1939 – 20 September 1940
Preceded by	Donato Tripiccione
Succeeded by	Cesare Amè
Military Governor of Corsica
In office 30 November 1942 – February 1943
Preceded by	Umberto Mondino
Succeeded by	Giovanni Magli
Personal details
Born	(1889-04-29)29 April 1889 Reggio Emilia, Kingdom of Italy
Died	2 December 1973(1973-12-02) (aged 84) Rome, Italy
Political party	Italian Communist Party (post-WWII)
Alma mater	Military Academy of Modena
Profession	Military officer
Military service
Allegiance	Kingdom of Italy (1912–1946)  Italy (1946–1951)
Branch/service	Royal Italian Army (1912–1946)  Italian Army (1946–1951)
Years of service	1912–1951
Rank	Army corps general
Unit	22nd Infantry Division "Cacciatori delle Alpi" 20th Infantry Division "Friuli" Motorized-Armored Army Corps SIM
Battles/wars	Italo-Turkish War World War I Battles of the Isonzo Battle of Vittorio Veneto Second Italo-Ethiopian War World War II Italian occupation of Corsica Italian campaign

Giacomo Carboni (29 April 1889 – 2 December 1973) was an Italian general who was the commander of Corpo d'armata motocorazzato deployed around Rome in the early days of September 1943.^[1]

Born in Reggio Emilia he joined the Modena Military Academy where he was commissioned Sottotenente. Then he fought in the Libyan war. During World War I he was an officer of the Alpini. In 1936–37 he was commander of the 81st infantry regiment during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, in 1939 he was Vice Commander of Cacciatori delle Alpi division. From September 1939 to June 1940 he was the chief of SIM. As chief of the Italian military secret service he wrote a series of reports to Mussolini wherein the Italian preparation to the war was described as inadequate.^[2][3] Carboni was dismissed from his post at SIM and was made commander of the Modena Military Academy.

From December 1941 until November 1942, he was commander of the 20 Infantry Division Friuli and in the first half of 1943, he led the VII Army Corps during the Italian occupation of Corsica.

In the eve of the 25 July coup General Ambrosio named Carboni as head of the Corpo d'armata motocorazzato in charge of the defense of Rome against the Germans and he cooperated in the overthrow of Mussolini. In the days between 2 July and 8 September he was also named head of the SIM again and he ordered the arrest of many fascists loyal to Mussolini.^{[citation needed]}

In the night of 7 September he hosted US general Maxwell D. Taylor and declared to the US counterpart his impossibility to defend Rome against the Germans due to the weakness of Italian forces. Despite the fact that the divisions in his command were the most modern and largely superior in numbers in the night of 8 September he did not attack the German forces and in the morning of the 9 September Carboni left his post as commander of the army corps and tried to reach the group around King Victor Emmanuel III and Pietro Badoglio. In the late hours of the 9 September he returned to Rome but his command was ineffective.

After the liberation of Rome he was under investigation for his role in the failed defence of Rome but was acquitted.^[4]