From January 1942 until February 1943, he served as the commander of the Italian Second Army and operated in Yugoslavia. There he constructed a policy in which he attempted to eliminate the Yugoslav Partisans, helped manage relations with the authorities of the puppet Independent State of Croatia, and "greatly advanced and systematized" collaboration with the Chetniks. He also established the Circular 3C as a "manifesto for repression in the Yugoslav territories", urging "ethnic clearance" be carried out and stressed the need for "complete cleansing" of Slovene-inhabited areas.