Page 34 - History of War - Issue 29-16

MUSSOLINI’S

DOWNFALL

Once the most powerful man in Italy, Il Duce met his end eeing his
country in disguise as the war drew to its bitter end

WORDS DAVID SMITH
he hunched gure in the back of A crossroads had been reached in May 1943, While the Allies bogged themselves down in
the German truck might not have when the Allied victory in Tunisia removed Axis negotiations with the new government – led by
merited a second glance had he forces from North Africa. A difference of opinion Marshal Pietro Badoglio – over the terms of an
not been wearing sunglasses. The divided the British and Americans at this point; Italian surrender, the Germans were already
T Luftwaffe corporal, resting his chin the Americans favouring a concentration of quietly moving troops into Italy.
on the sub-machine gun between his knees, force for the invasion of German-occupied When the inevitable armistice between Italy
was certainly not what the partisans of the France, while the British advocated delaying and the Allies was announced, the Germans
52nd Garibaldi Brigade were looking for. They that and keeping the pressure on Germany were ready with Operation Achse, which saw
were intent only on nding any fugitive Italians through its weaker partner. German troops replace Italians in southern
within the small column of German troops The British plan prevailed, and Italy faced an France, the Balkans and the Aegean. They
heading for home. uncertain future, but there was still hope that also immediately disarmed more than half a
However, the sunglasses – worn on a a destructive campaign on the Italian mainland million Italian troops in their native country – a
cloudy day – attracted attention and a closer might be avoided. As the rst Allied strike staggering 56 divisions of the Italian Army were
examination of the German corporal revealed began, against Sicily in July, one thing was simply dismantled.
the unmistakable features of Benito Amilcare clear; Il Duce’s days as dictator were all but
Andrea Mussolini, former Prime Minister and over. At a meeting of his own Grand Council, in Below: Italian partisans, aligned with the Action Party,
dictator of Italy. It was 27 April 1945, and the the sweltering heat of a late July day and into patrol the streets of Milan after the city’s liberation
story of ‘Il Duce’ (‘the leader’), was coming to the night, Il Duce was voted out of of ce.
its conclusion. Realising that he could ignore the vote of
the council, he remained determined to hang
The slow defeat on to power. His fate was sealed the next
Mussolini had long sensed that his end was day, however, when he was arrested by the
near. The war, never popular in Italy, had been King, Victor Emmanuel III. Although the whole
going badly for some time. “From October process was so polite and peaceful, Mussolini
1942,” he had commented, referring to the apparently failed to understand what was really
Allied victory at El Alamein, “I had a constant happening to him.
and growing presentiment of the crisis which On the day of his 60th birthday, Il Duce was
was to overwhelm me.” in captivity on the island of Ponza, before being
In truth, it did not take a political savant to moved to an impressive suite at the Hotel
see that trouble was brewing. The Italian role in Campo Imperatore, 1,800 metres up the Gran
World War II had often bordered on the farcical. Sasso mountain in the Apennines.
Very much a junior partner to the Germans,
Italy had only declared war on France once Italian surrender
it had been conquered. Subsequent military Nobody, on either side, had any doubts that
operations – including those in Albania and Italy would now try to extricate itself from the
Greece – had been botched to the extent that war. The critical factor in the tragic events that
German forces had been required to bail the followed would be the German ability to act on
Italians out. that realisation.

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