Note from Com. Giovanni Berardi
“The descriptions we have of the session, which ended with the King's decision to proceed with the declaration of the armistice, coincide in their general lines, if not in details, giving us an idea of the climate of bewilderment in which it took place. And this not only because of the drama that befell the nation, but also because it came suddenly both for the "initiates", such as Badoglio and Ambrosio (who had believed until the very end that Eisenhower would postpone the declaration of the armistice), and, and even more so, for the others who, as Guariglia wrote, "knew little or little precisely about what had happened in the previous days". In fact, in the meeting it emerged that the three military ministers (two of which also heads of MS), although they had been informed on September 3 that it had been decided to start negotiations for an armistice, had not known anything about this and even less about the occurrence. signature, and that General Puntoni, although First Adjutant to the Field of the King, had been kept in the dark about everything ”.