Gran Sasso raid

• 1. The Collapse Of July

  ›

  On the night of the 24th of July 1943, the Grand Council of Fascism passed a motion of no confidence against prime minister Benito Mussolini. King Victor Emmanuel III arrested Mussolini on the 25th of July and replaced him with Marshal Pietro Badoglio. The end of Mussolini's Fascist regime is known as 25 Luglio in Italy. Badoglio's government remained allied with the Axis powers for a few more weeks. By the 17th of August, the Allies defeated the Italians and Germans in Sicily. Italy began secret negotiations to surrender on that same day. On the 3rd of September, Giuseppe Castellano signed the Armistice of Cassibile. This agreement ended the nation's war with the Allies. The armistice was not announced until the 8th of September. Badoglio wanted the Allies to move as far north as possible before revealing the truce. He knew the German army would respond by seizing Italian territory. The Nazis launched Operation Achse on the 8th of September. They occupied key positions in central and northern Italy. Many Italian soldiers simply refused to fight the Germans. Marshal Badoglio and King Victor Emmanuel III fled to Allied-controlled territory in southern Italy.

• 2. A Prisoner In Transit

  ›

  When the Carabinieri arrested Mussolini in Rome on the 25th of July, they initially brought him to their headquarters in Trastevere. He was held at the Carabinieri Cadet School until the 27th of July. The military police escorted him to Gaeta on that date. On the 28th of July, they arrived at an isolated house on Ponza. This island sits in the Tyrrhenian Sea. Mussolini was kept there until the 7th of August. He was held at a private villa on La Maddalena until the 27th of August. The following day, he was moved to the Hotel Campo Imperatore. The hotel was built on a remote and defendable mountain plateau. It stood 2,112 metres above sea level in the Gran Sasso d'Italia mountain range. A ski station was located next to the hotel. The hotel is shaped like the letter 'd'. Two more hotels shaped as 'v' and 'x' were planned but never built. The title Il Duce derived from dux.

• 3. Tracking The Leader

  ›

  Adolf Hitler secretly ordered General Kurt Student to oversee a mission to liberate Mussolini. SS-Obersturmbannführer Herbert Kappler learned about Mussolini's transfer from La Maddalena through one of Edda Ciano's letters. Kappler also paid informants with counterfeit money created during Operation Bernhard. His agents intercepted a message about security preparations at Gran Sasso. This indicated Mussolini might be imprisoned there. A German doctor feigned interest in setting up a clinic at the hotel. He did this to confirm the deposed tyrant was being held there. Hauptsturmführer Otto Skorzeny was detailed to Student. On the 8th of September, he scouted the Gran Sasso to strategize how to free Mussolini. The elevation of the hotel made parachuting risky. Harald Mors and General Student devised a plan to deliver troops by military glider. To their surprise, Skorzeny insisted on going along. Several of General Student's paratroopers were then replaced by Skorzeny and the SS.

• 4. The Gliders Land

  ›

  By the day of the raid, the 12th of September, Germany controlled the territory around the Hotel Campo. Major Harald Mors commanded the entire operation and led the ground assault. German tanks and armored cars swarmed the base of the mountain while paratroopers approached the Hotel Campo by air. Mors cut all telephone lines. Italian forestry guard Pasqualino Vitocco was killed while attempting to warn the garrison of the attack. Carabiniere Giovanni Natale was killed while preparing to open fire on Mors' troops. Two more carabinieri were slightly wounded by a hand grenade. These were the only casualties of the operation. Several Henschel Hs 126 planes took off from Pratica di Mare Air Base near Rome just after midday. They towed ten DFS 230 gliders. Each carried nine soldiers and a pilot. Italian General Fernando Soleti was flying with the soldiers. He had been arrested and forced to come in hopes that Mussolini's guards would not fire on an officer they recognized. Oberleutnant Georg Freiherr von Berlepsch led the airborne operation. The gliders looped to gain altitude over the Alban Hills. Skorzeny ordered the gliders with his SS troops to skip the maneuver. He demanded to land near the hotel. This caused one of the aircraft to crash.

• 5. The Face Of Victory

  ›

  Although the landing at Campo Imperatore was led by First Lieutenant von Berlepsch under Major Mors's command, Skorzeny and the SS became the face of the triumph. Skorzeny was named Sturmbannführer and awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. He was dubbed the most dangerous man in Europe. In 1950, Skorzeny published a bestselling autobiography titled Geheimkommando Skorzeny. He wrote another memoir in 1976 called Meine Kommandounternehmen. The Nazi legend of his part in the scheme was the dominant narrative for decades. His exaggerated credit overshadowed the genuine role of the paratroopers. General Student's paratroopers were shocked to see Skorzeny and the SS given credit for Operation Oak. Major Mors demanded Student correct the record. Student confessed he did not want to provoke Heinrich Himmler. Allied media were skeptical of the boasts from Berlin. The Nazis ensured film crews captured the entire operation and distributed it via newsreel. They glamorized it in the pages of Signal.

• 6. A Broken Dictator

  ›

  By all accounts, the man the Germans rescued was broken and bore little resemblance to the swaggering Il Duce. Mussolini had attempted suicide while under arrest. He had been seriously ill throughout the war. His health got much worse during captivity. It was only after reuniting with this family in Munich that he started to come back to life. Hitler had to bully Mussolini to return home. Mussolini established the Italian Social Republic. This puppet state existed in German-occupied northern Italy. It collaborated with Germany in the fight against the Allies. As total defeat loomed in late April 1945, Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci attempted to flee to Switzerland. They were captured by Italian communist partisans. They were summarily executed on the 28th of April 1945 near Lake Como. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill responded to the escape in the House of Commons. He called the attack a daring one completely beyond all foresight. A speech purportedly by Mussolini boasted about the liberation. He claimed the enterprise would live in history.