Page 38 - History of War - Issue 29-16

MUSSOLINI’S DOWNFALL

For some, simply standing by and watching “PARTISAN GROUPS HAD SPRUNG UP SPONTANEOUSLY ON
was unthinkable, but the understandable
desire to do something to respond to the THE DECLARATION OF THE ARMISTICE WITH THE ALLIES, WITH
situation would lead Italy into the murky
depths of a civil war. AN ESTIMATED 10,000 CIVILIANS ARMING THEMSELVES AND
Resistance erupts
Partisan groups had sprung up spontaneously FORMING LOOSELY ORGANISED GROUPS”
on the declaration of the armistice with the
Allies, with an estimated 10,000 civilians a dozen men. After the armistice was signed well as some who spurned any sort of political
arming themselves and forming loosely in September 1943, the number of active af liation at all, such as the Stella Rossa, the
organised groups. A two-day resistance partisans in Italy would rise sharply. ‘Red Star Brigade’.
was also staged at Rome until the Germans Following Mussolini’s removal, previously The six major anti-fascist parties organised
threatened to raze the city. banned political parties stepped out of the themselves into the Comitato di Liberazione
Around 50,000 prisoners of war, mostly shadows to form partisan groups with fervent Nazionale, or Committee of National Liberation
from Yugoslavia, were also thrown into the mix ideological grounding. Almost half of these (CLN), aiming to co-ordinate resistance to the
when the Italians guarding them simply left groups were communists, known as ‘Garibaldi German occupation and Italian fascist groups.
their posts. Many headed for the hills and the Brigades’. The Action Party was the next Many of these had sprung up at the same
mountains to join partisan groups. largest faction, but there were also partisans time as Mussolini’s new government. Fascist
Such groups were small in number at the ghting for the aims of the Socialists, Christian militia, in the form of the Guardia Nazionale
start of the war, possibly comprising as few as Democrats, Labour Democrats and Liberals, as Repubblicana (GNR), worked to counter the

Mussolini’s popularity
declined rapidly as the
Allies advanced up the
Italian mainland

A young soldier is
comforted during an
inspection of a paramilitary
Black Brigade

Mussolini spent the last
two years of his life as a
puppet gurehead of the
Italian Social Republic

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