The Gran Sasso Raid: Freedom for Mussolini

Mussolini with his rescuers Sept. 12, 1943

It was the fall of 1943. Italy was being invaded by the Allies after the loss of North Africa. Benito Mussolini is deposed by the Italian Fascist Council, replaced by Piedro Badoglio, and arrested by order of the Italian King Victor Emmanuel. However, Hitler does not intend on abandoning his fellow fascist leader so easily.

A plan is devised, codename Operation Eiche ("oak"), by Otto Skorzeny. They know that Mussolini is being held in the Hotel Campo Imperatore in the Apennines Mountains. The plan involves nine gliders of troops to land on the surrounding the hotel and then airlift Mussolini in a Fieseler Fi156, a small reconnaissance plane able to take off and land in very short distances.

A Fieseler Fi156

The plan goes off without a hitch. The nine gliders land, the paratroopers, both Waffen-SS and Fallschirmjager (regular army versus SS), take the hotel without firing a shot. Mussolini graciously receives his liberators and they proceed to leave. The only problem in the plan was that the Fi156 was meant only for two people, and the extra weight of Mussolini on board almost made the plane too heavy to take off.

Fortunately for Mussolini, he arrived safely in Vienna and after meeting with Hitler was soon appointed the ruler of German-occupied Italy, or the Italian Social Republic. This would ultimately prove to be Hitler's last successful gamble of the war. It also would prove to be one of the last great PR messages for Hermann Goering of the Luftwaffe.

The rescue of Mussolini was played on by the German propagandists for months, and as it would soon become apparent there would be little if any German successes to gloat about in the final days of the war. Until next time, take care, and thanks for reading.