On 26 July 1943, SS officer Skortseny received an order to immediately fly to Hitler's base camp, where the captain officer was personally received by Hitler, who summoned Skolceny for the sole purpose of freeing the Italian dictator Mussolini. It turned out that with the Landing of the Allied forces in Sicily in July 1943, the situation in Italy took a sharp turn for the worse, and then the call for anti-dictatorship in Italy grew, and on the 25th of the same month, King Emmanuel III of Italy secretly summoned Mussolini and forced him to be relieved of all his duties, and Mussolini was then secretly imprisoned.
▲ Skolceni and Mussolini
Hitler reacted immediately when he learned of this, saying: After the formation of the new Italian government, it has turned to the Allies, and we must immediately rescue our old friend and old ally Mussolini. Hitler then received the SS captain, accompanied by General Stout (the father of the German paratroopers) and Himmler, who chose Skörzeni because he had traveled to Italy several times and had extensive experience in airborne combat. In the face of Hitler's orders, Skolzeni also expressed his determination to carry them out.
German paratroopers rescuing Mussolini
By late August, German intelligence had identified Mussolini's final detention site, Mount Gransazo, where Mussolini had been placed under house arrest since his dismissal in a secret hotel guarded by more than 200 Italian gendarmes, next to a military base with troops loyal to Italy's current ruler, Badoglio. In order to avoid alarming the large number of soldiers in the military base, the Germans decided to use small airborne troops to launch a surprise attack and quickly rescue Mussolini in a blitzkrieg. To this end, General Stouttent also secretly transferred more than a dozen gliders from the south of France to participate in the raid. In order to achieve the unexpected effect, German rescuers also contacted the Italian pro-Mussolini general General Soledi, hoping that this person would be the internal response to the operation.
▲In order to reduce the landing distance of the glider, the tail of the aircraft is equipped with a deceleration parachute
On 12 September, the troops who rescued Mussolini began the operation, and after reaching the ground, the German paratroopers took control of a ropeway connecting Mussolini's hotel under house arrest, caught the Italian gendarmes in charge of guarding Mussolini off guard, and cut off all contact between the hotel under house arrest and the outside world. Then, with the help of a reconnaissance plane, Mussolini stumbled and flew to Germany. Because Mussolini had been under house arrest for nearly a month, the former dictator could not wait to read the local newspaper and ask Skolceni about what had happened recently, because the great dictator still fantasized about returning to the peak of Italy's power, but his fate had long been predestined from the moment Mussolini was placed under house arrest.
The place where Mussolini was placed under house arrest can be seen to be very remote
After Mussolini came to Germany, he was arranged by Hitler at the Karl Palace in Munich, and then a large number of German officers and local Italians frantically poured into the Prince Carl Palace, while Mussolini was always standing next to the radio to listen to the latest news on the situation in Italy in real time. In fact, in Mussolini's eyes Hitler is not worth mentioning at all, because in his eyes Hitler is just following his example to seize german power, Mussolini always treats Hitler with an arrogant, self-styled attitude of division commander, but what now makes him extremely embarrassed is that because of the situation in Italy, he has to get along with Hitler in a posture of sending people to the fence, so Mussolini at this time is silent, very restrained, and tired. Then Mussolini made a speech to the Italian people through the radio, saying: Italy still has salvation!
Mussolini and Hitler
On September 15, Mussolini flew to the airport of Hitler's base camp, where Hitler was waiting for Mussolini, and after a warm sigh of greeting, Hitler asked Mussolini what he planned to do in the future, and how to act on the current situation. Mussolini's reply, however, disappointed Hitler, who said he might quit politics and pursue a career in writing. Hitler said that without a strong fascist government, Italy would be doomed. Mussolini decided to return to Italy after being fanned by other Nazi officials. By the 17th Mussolini had issued seven so-called decrees proclaiming the establishment of a social republic (also known as the Republic of Salò) in Italy.
Armed forces of the Italian Social Republic
By the 23rd, Mussolini had established the Italian Social Republic in the northern Italian town of Salò, and as its leader and foreign minister, Mussolini decided to compete with the Kingdom of Italy in the south. However, this Republic of Salo was a puppet regime in Germany, nominally with Rome as its capital, but could only survive in Salò, and after its establishment, Mussolini privately signed a large number of land-cutting treaties with Germany, and then completely relied on the German system to maintain its rule. Gradually Mussolini began to lose his will, nervous breakdown, because as soon as he opened his eyes, there were Germans next to him, and his every move was controlled by Himmler, because Himmler always had to know Mussolini's closeness and loyalty to Germany, and now Mussolini was a pawn of the Germans, for Hitler there could be no gap in the direction of Italy, and the current situation Mussolini was the most suitable person to plug the gap.
▲ You can see that the soldiers of the Republic of Salò are very similar to the German army
With the suspension of Allied military operations in Italy in 1944 and the focus instead on Normandy, Mussolini's Salò Republic existed until 1945, and in April of the same year the Allied forces re-launched the offensive in Italy, Mussolini's Salo Republic instantly collapsed, and the leaders began to flee, including Mussolini, and by April 6 the German army began to retreat. After that, the purge of fascism began in Italy, and if they were suspected of having anything to do with fascism, they would be shot and killed. So Mussolini's last life ended in hiding, and on April 25 Mussolini decided to go to Switzerland, only to be captured by partisans of the Italian Resistance on the 27th.
Mussolini hanging up (second from the left)
Although the Allied General Command had long informed the Italian Resistance that the capture of Mussolini would have to be disposed of by the Allies, the partisans had their own plans. On the 27th, the guerrilla leader Valerio was ordered to shoot Mussolini and 15 of his party, and finally italy's archdiocrat was interrupted by a burst of gunfire. However, before it was over, the guerrillas carried the bodies of Mussolini and his party to the truck and transported them to Milan, and after the body was unloaded, it immediately attracted a crowd of onlookers, and people began to kick Mussolini's body like a leather ball, and some people shot at the corpse, venting their hatred.
Mussolini and his mistress Clara
Mussolini's body was then hoisted, and it is worth mentioning that Mussolini's mistress Clara was wearing a skirt when she was shot, so after being hung up, a woman tied Clara's skirt with her belt in a boo, preserving the last shred of dignity for the poor and unfortunate "bad woman".
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