Inigo Campioni

After Italy entered World War II on 10 June 1940, Campioni commanded the Italian battlefleet during the early months of the Mediterranean naval campaign against the British, including the Battle of Calabria, the Battle of Taranto, Operation White, and the Battle of Cape Spartivento. Heavily criticized for failing to intercept two British convoys and handling his superior force too cautiously during the latter battle, he was relieved of command on 8 December 1940 – to be succeeded by Angelo Iachino – and returned to the post of Deputy Chief of Staff of the Navy.[3] He did, however, become a Commander of the Military Order of Savoy for his achievements from June 1940 through July 1941.[4]

On 15 July 1941, Campioni was appointed governor of the Italian Aegean Islands (or Italian Dodecanese) and made commander of all Axis armed forces operating in that area. In November 1941, he reached retirement age and was transferred to the naval auxiliary, although he remained on active duty as governor and commander in the Aegean.[3]

Campioni was at his headquarters on the island of Rhodes when the armistice between Italy and the Allies was announced on 8 September 1943. He thereafter refused to collaborate with the Axis Powers and oversaw Italian armed resistance to the German conquest of the Aegean Islands that immediately followed the armistice. On 11 September 1943, the Italian garrison on Rhodes surrendered to German forces, who captured Campioni.[1]

The Germans placed Campioni in a prisoner-of-war camp at Schokken (now Skoki) in Poland. In January 1944, they transported him to the northern portion of Italy administered by the Italian Social Republic, a German client regime led by Benito Mussolini, which took custody of him and jailed him at Verona.[1] Campioni refused repeated offers to collaborate with the Social Republic. He based his decision on his view that the Social Republic government was illegal and that Italy's legitimate government remained the Kingdom of Italy, which controlled the southern part of the country and had switched sides and joined the Allies. As a result of his stance, an Italian Social Republic military tribunal in Parma convicted him of high treason and condemned him to death. The Social Republic offered him a pardon on the condition that he recognize it as Italy's legitimate government, but he rejected the pardon and was executed along with Contrammiraglio Luigi Mascherpa and others by a firing squad composed of youths aged 17 and 18 in the city square at Parma on 24 May 1944.[3][5][6] The Italian Republic posthumously awarded Campioni the Gold Medal of Military Valor in November 1947.[1] He is buried in the military cemetery at Bari, Italy.[4]