Giuseppe Pièche (Florence, 7 March 1886 – Velletri, 25 August 1977) was an Italian general during World War II. He spent most of his career in the Carabinieri, of which he was Commander-General from November 1943 to July 1944. After the war, he played an important role in setting up anti-Communist networks in Italy in the early stages of the Cold War.
Biography
After entering the Military Academy of Modena in 1905, Pièche was appointed second lieutenant of the Royal Italian Army in 1907, assigned to the 71st Infantry Regiment and later (from 1908) to the 38th Infantry Regiment. In 1913 he was transferred to the Carabinieri, assigned to the Legion of Rome and later participating in the First World War, during which he was promoted to captain; at the end of the war he was in command of the Carabinieri detachment that guarded the headquarters of the Italian Supreme Command in Villa Giusti, near Padua, and in this capacity he witnessed the talks that led to the Armistice of Villa Giusti, as well as its signing. After serving in the Carabinieri Legions of Rome and of Bologna and being promoted to major, during the 1920s he was sent to Tripolitania, being promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1927. From 1932 to 1935 he was head of the III (counter-espionage) Section of the Servizio Informazioni Militare, and in 1935 he was promoted to colonel for exceptional merits and given command of the Carabinieri Legion of Palermo. In 1936, at the request of General Mario Roatta (commander of the Corps of Volunteer Troops), Pièche was given command of the Carabinieri detachment of the CTV (three sections and a company, numbering some 500 men overall) and entrusted with coordinating all military aid reaching the Nationalist camp. In 1938 he was promoted to brigadier general for special merits and placed in command of the 3rd Carabinieri Brigade (later passing to the command of the 5th Carabinieri Brigade); on 11 November 1940 he was promoted to the rank of major general and given command of the 3rd Carabinieri Division "Ogaden" of Naples.
After collaborating with the OVRA, in 1942 Pièche carried out an investigation on the proliferation of "parallel" police forces under the orders of the various Fascist leaders, on behalf of Benito Mussolini. From July 1942 to February 1943 he coordinated and directed military police operations in Croatia, serving again under Roatta, now in command of the 2nd Army. During this period he also headed an Italian military mission in the Independent State of Croatia and served as a consultant for the organization of the political police of Ante Pavelić; at the same time, however, he opposed the genocide of the local Jewish communities by the Ustashe. On November 4, 1942, he warned Mussolini of the use of gas to exterminate entire Jewish communities deported from the Balkans.
After returning to Italy, on 23 February 1943 he was appointed deputy general commander of the Carabinieri, and from 22 July he briefly held the prefecture of Foggia. He remained in territory controlled by the royalist government after the Armistice of Cassibile of September 1943, and on 19 December of the same year the head of government, Marshal of Italy Pietro Badoglio, appointed him Commander-General of the Carabinieri (with headquarters in Bari), a post he held until July 20, 1944, when he was made Prefect regent of the newly liberated province of Ancona and replaced by General Taddeo Orlando as Commander-General of the Carabinieri. While he was prefect of Ancona, the High Commissioner for Sanctions Against Fascism referred him to the Epuration Commission, which however declared nonsuit. On April 29, 1945, he was discharged from the Army.