The Axis group suffered its first great crisis in 1943, the betrayal of Italy. In July 1943, the Allied landings in Sicily caused great controversy throughout Italy. Mussolini was soon arrested by the Italian king, and Italy was ready to negotiate an armistice with the Allies and withdraw from the Axis. This incident caused Adolf great uneasiness.
At this time, the Eastern Front was experiencing the Battle of Kursk, and the entire Eastern Front could no longer see the hope of victory, and if Italy turned again, the Axis group would almost be broken. So Adolf hoped to rescue Mussolini, the Germans to help, and then he would stabilize the situation in Germany. After much deliberation, Adolf decided to use the Paratrooper Special Forces to send a small force to rescue Mussolini.
The elite members of the German Paratrooper Corps undertook this difficult task, and no similar operation had ever been successful before. The spies soon found Mussolini's place of detention, and despite several transfers, the German paratroopers found Mussolini's temporary location, the Campo Hotel in the Great Sasso Mountains. The entire mountain's access had been blocked, and there were still two or three hundred soldiers guarding the hotel, while at the bottom of the mountain more than a thousand people guarded the whole mountain, trying to rescue Mussolini, unless some gods fell from the sky.
The German paratrooper special forces chose the method of airborne combat, but with the airborne technology at that time, it was quite difficult to accurately land on a small open space next to the Campo Hotel. Eventually, the German top brass abandoned the bombers and opted for glider combat. That was the only way possible at the time. 12 gliders took part in the mission, and a battalion of airborne special operations units were assigned to attack the hotel and prevent German troops from coming down the hill for support.
At one o'clock in the afternoon of September 12, 1943, the rescue operation began, 10 gliders were driven by tractors and took off smoothly, and arrived at The Grand Sasso In an hour thick, and only 8 gliders landed smoothly. The Italians guarding the Campo Hotel barely resisted and were captured by German paratroopers. Mussolini was rescued by a Stork reconnaissance plane and eventually arrived in Vienna.
The seemingly sinister airborne rescue operation went so smoothly, perhaps thanks to the kindness of the Italians. What do you think?