Allied Military Government of Occupied Territories

Allied Military Government of Occupied Territories
Flag
Official languages	English Italian French German Japanese
Type	Military occupation
Currency	Allied Military Currency AM-Lira AM-Franc AM-Schilling AM-Mark A yen B yen

The Allied Military Government of Occupied Territories (originally abbreviated AMGOT, later AMG) was the form of military rule administered by Allied forces during and after World War II within European territories they occupied. The first instance of this inter-Allied model of government of occupied territory was manifested in Sicily after Operation Husky in August 1943.

Notable AMGOT

This form of controlled government was implemented in the states of Germany, Italy, Austria and Japan, amongst others.

• 
  A franchise stamp issued by the Allied Military Government (AMG) in 1948 to exempt travellers from fees when crossing borders.
• 
  Three revenue stamps of the AMG from 1950 and 1951.

France

A dollar-like 100-franc note produced by the Americans and supplied in June 1944 following Operation "Overlord".

The U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt insisted that an AMGOT should be implemented in Vichy France, but this was opposed by both U.S. Secretary of War Henry Stimson and U.S. Under Secretary of War John J. McCloy, as well as Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) commander, General Dwight Eisenhower, who had been strongly opposed to the imposition of AMGOT in Vichy French North Africa. Eisenhower, unlike Roosevelt, wanted to cooperate with Charles de Gaulle, the leader of Free France; he secured a last-minute promise from Roosevelt on the eve of the invasion of Normandy that the Allied officers would not act as military governors and would instead cooperate with the local authorities as the Allied forces liberated Vichy French territory. De Gaulle would, however, later claim in his memoirs that he blocked AMGOT.

The AMGOT would have been implemented in Vichy France after its liberation but the Free French established control of the country through the Provisional Government of the French Republic in the name of the Free French Forces and the united French Resistance (French Forces of the Interior) following the liberation of Paris by the French supported by US forces, in August 1944.

Germany

Main article: Allied Control Council

After the German surrender control of German territory was divided amongst the four powers of the Soviet Union, the United States, the United Kingdom and France.

Italy

Sicily

After Operation Husky, with the Allied Invasion of Sicily on July 10, 1943, the Allied Military Government of Occupied Territories (AMGOT) was established under major-general Francis Rodd, 2nd Baron Rennell (as Chief Civil Affairs Officer, Allied Military Government Italy) and US Army Civil Affairs officer colonel Charles Poletti.

Interviewed by the News Chronicle, Rennell was asked about the controversial decision to retain the services of the Carabinieri and other police and officials who had worked for the Fascist regime, and answered "They are doing an excellent job and deserve to be trusted. Their oath had been to the King, not to Mussolini. (...) We do not seek the support of any political group, neither anti-Fascists nor any others. For the time being, all political gatherings are forbidden in Sicily. We are a military administration, we have no mandate to make any political or social reforms".

In February 1944 the AMGOT handed over the administration to the Badoglio Cabinet. It continued to operate as "Allied Military Government" in the occupied Italian territories until the end of the war.

Free Territory of Trieste

The Allied Military Government of the Free Territory of Trieste was a follow-on from the military government of occupied Italy. The Free Territory of Trieste was created by the 16th UN Security Council Resolution adopted at the 91st meeting by 10 votes to none, with 1 abstention (Australia), 10 January 1947, and established by the signature of the Treaty of Peace with Italy, 10 February 1947, then entered in force from 15 September 1947. The instrument for the provisional regime of the Free Territory of Trieste provides that the allied and associated military forces govern the territory. The historical situation saw the division into two administration areas called Zone A, including the capital Trieste and the Free Port of Trieste (ports areas within the boundaries delineated in 1939) and Zone B comprising the area of the cities of Koper Izola, Umago, Buje and Cittanova. Zone A was assigned to the Anglo-Americans and Zone B to the Yugoslavs. Military governments ended when in November 1954 under the provisions of the London Memorandum, among the United States, United Kingdom, Italy and Yugoslavia, to become a civil administration. Zone A was assigned to Italy (not yet a member of the UNO) and Zone B was assigned to Yugoslavia.

See also

• Allied Commission
• A Bell for Adano is a 1944 novel by John Hersey centered on the AMGOT control of the fictional Italian village of Adano based on the real-life village of Licata, Italy.

References

• Trieste Revenue stamps listed in Italy Revenues" by J.Barefoot Ltd, York, 2013, ISBN 0-906845-73-4.

External links

• Infoplease-Military Government
• Allied Military Currency Archived 2012-06-30 at the Wayback Machine