 Not trusting his son, Victor Emmanuel had told Umberto nothing about his attempts to negotiate an armistice nor about his plans to flee Rome if the Germans should occupy it.For the first time in his life, Umberto criticised his father, saying the King of Italy should not be fleeing Rome and only reluctantly obeyed his father's orders to go south with him towards the Allied lines.The king and the rest of the royal family fled Rome via a car to Ortona, to board a corvette, the "Baionetta", that took them south.