Page 36 - History of War - Issue 29-16

MUSSOLINI’S DOWNFALL

The Allies had clearly miscalculated the Italian government in northern Italy, or face
German response, but worse was to come. the consequences. “Northern Italy,” the Führer
Rather than digging in on a defensive line to warned, “will be forced to envy the fate of
the north of Rome, as expected, the Germans Poland if you do not accept to give renewed
chose to resist the Allied invasion. Getting vigour to the alliance between Germany and
underway just hours after the declaration of the Italy, by becoming head of the state and of the
armistice, on 9 September, the Allied landings new government.”
at Salerno were ercely contested from the So began the last phase of Mussolini’s
start. Under Albert Kesselring, the Germans career, as the head of a puppet regime. If he
were prepared to make Allied forces pay for had felt like a corpse before, he was little more
every inch of Italian territory they gained. than a zombie now.
Mussolini was in a state of limbo at this
point. Describing himself as, “a corpse whose The Allies creep closer
death they hesitate to announce,” he appeared Many Italians had hoped that the armistice
to have lost the energy and passion that had with the Allies would mean an end to their war.
marked out his early career. This was perhaps naïve, but few would have
Under the terms of the negotiations with guessed that their struggle was just beginning.
the Allies, he was meant to have been handed Germany could not allow the Allies to simply
over when the invasion began, but the German occupy a section of Italy and use it as a
response had been so swift that panic had launch pad for strikes against the Fatherland. Above: Il Duce’s control over Italy became absolute in
1925 when he dissolved the democratic government
struck the new Italian regime. Along with the The removal of the Italians as a ghting
King, Badoglio and the rest of the government partner, however their abilities were viewed, the mistake of resisting the Germans. More
had ed south from Rome on 9 September, was nevertheless a major blow and Germany than a thousand were killed in the one-sided
forgetting all about the deposed dictator, whose would soon be ghting on three desperately ghting that followed, and 5,000 survivors were
life and career was about to enter its nal, hard fronts as the long-anticipated invasion of then systematically massacred.
humiliating phase. Europe neared. The Allied offensive from Salerno made slow
12 gliders, carrying over 100 German The rst Italians to wake up to the reality of progress, but had driven the Germans back to
commandos, were dispatched to ‘rescue’ the new situation were the soldiers themselves. a major defensive line by January 1944. Three
Mussolini, who was forced to leave his More than 600,000 became prisoners of war, assaults were launched on the town of Cassino,
comfortable hotel in a dangerously overloaded with the bulk of them shipped to Germany to one of the keystones of the Gustav Line, but
Stork reconnaissance plane. Two days later, he work as forced labour, while around 200,000 the German defences could not be breached.
was meeting the Führer. took the alternative of joining the German Army. The war had entered a brutal, attritional phase
Hitler offered Mussolini a stark choice – Atrocities were common, most notably on the and the Italians found themselves bystanders
either accept a position at the head of a new island of Cephalonia, where Italian troops made caught between two destructive forces.
“MANY ITALIANS HAD HOPED THAT THE ARMISTICE WITH Below: Mussolini pictured
with German and Italian
troops in 1944. Units
THE ALLIES WOULD MEAN AN END TO THEIR WAR. THIS WAS were receiving training in
Germany to continue the
PERHAPS NAÏVE, BUT FEW WOULD HAVE GUESSED THAT THEIR ght against the Allies
STRUGGLE WAS JUST BEGINNING”

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