Benito Mussolini was the fascist dictator of Italy who took his country into the Second
World War to ally himself with Adolf Hitler his great friend. The pair would fight as
part of the Axis alliance during World War 2, but Mussolini would eventually be deposed
and he would be captured in a shocking turn of events. He was freed for a short period
of time with Hitler ordering a raid to get him free, but then he was captured by Italian
Partisans and along with his mistress Clara Petacci he was executed at the side of a road,
and then his remains were shown in Milan in front of thousands of angry people. Join us
today as we look at the execution of Benito Mussolini, remember to support our channel,
please make sure to subscribe.
Benito Mussolini had been Italy’s facist dictator since 1925 but had been the prime
minister for years before. But his involvement in the Second World War caused a lost of controversy,
and in July 1943 following the Allied invasion of Sicily, Mussolini was deposed and arrested.
But then during the Gran Sasso raid he was freed, and Hitler installed him as the leader
of the Italian Social Republic, a northern Italy German puppet state. But the Allies
then continued to fight north, and they took Rome and Florence, but then Mussolini on the
18th April 1945 left Gargnano, a village near to Salo where he had been living. He moved
his government to Milan and based himself there. He was preparing for defeat, and he
hoped that the Archbishop of Milan would help him negotiate peace with the Partisans and
the Allies. But after a week, the army were crumbling and Mussolini then debated making
a last stand in the Italian Alps, fleeing to Switzerland or trying to negotiate a peaceful
handover with the partisans. But at the time, there were orders issued against facsist politicians,
and they wer etc be executed for their betrayal of Italy. The partisans said, ‘Members of
the Fascist government of fascism who are guilty of suppressing constitutional guarantees,
destroying popular liberties, creating the Fascist regime, compromising and betraying
the fate of the country, and leading it to the present catastrophe are to be punished
with the penalty of death, and in less serious instances life imprisonment.’ But Mussolini
tried to negotiate peacefully, and this did not work, and Mussolini then fled Milan. He
went towards Lake Como, and it was not known if he was trying to get to the Swiss border.
He was joined by his mistress Clara Petacci, and they made a number of attempts to cross
the border. But then on the 27th April 1945, he joined a Luftwaffe convoy who were retreating
to Germany.
But then, a group of local communist partisans attacked the convoy which carried Mussolini
and PEtacci near to the village of Dongo. The convoy stopped, and there were other fascist
leaders there, but to begin with Mussolini was not recognised. They made the Germans
hand over the Italians but found slumped over was Mussolini, it was said ‘His face was
like wax and his stare glassy, but somehow blind. I read utter exhaustion, but not fear
... Mussolini seemed completely lacking in will, spiritually dead.’ The partisans arrested
Mussolini and he was taken to Dongo and spent the evening in the local barracks, and he
was reunited with his mistress. There was fighting in the area, and there was a worry
that the pair would be freed, and because of this they were taken to a safe house, a
fair house belonging to a local peasant family. Mussolini’s capture was then announced that
evening over the radio, and the announcement said, ‘The head of this association of delinquents,
Mussolini, while yellow with rancour and fear and trying to cross the Swiss frontier, has
been arrested. He must be handed over to a tribunal of the people so it can judge him
quickly. We want this, even though we think an execution platoon is too much of an honour
for this man. He would deserve to be killed like a mangy dog.’
There were a number of different accounts about who ordered the execution of Mussolini.
The Secretary General of the Communist party claimed he had done so, but then it was also
claimed that others did this. A senior communist Luigi Longo said the order came from the General
command of the partisan military units, and that the decision to execute him was made
in the evening following his capture. Longo instructed a communist partisan of the General
command, Walter Audisio to be the one who was sent to execute Mussolini, and he was
told to ‘go and shoot him,’ and Audis took with him another partisan, Aldo Lampredi.
There were a number of accounts as to how Mussolini was executed. But the executioners
left in the morning of the 28th April 1945 to carry out the orders, and they got to Dongo
and Audisio was driven to the farmhouse to collect Mussolini and Petacci. After they
were picked up, the executioners drove 20kms south, and the truck pulled up at the entrance
of the villa Belmont, on a narrow road. Mussolini and Petacci were told to get out of the car,
and to stand by the villa’s wall. Audis then at 4:10pm shot Mussolini and petacci
with his machine gun which he had borrowed as his own gun had jammed. It was said Mussolini
was cowardly in his final moments, and that he began to become upset, telling the executioner
to aim at my heart when the execution order was given. There were differing accounts as
to the events of his execution, and Audisio said there had been a war tribunal called
which condemned the pair to death.
However following the executions, the bodies of Mussolini, Petacci and other executed fascists
were taken to Milan. When they got to the city, they were dumped on the ground in the
Piazzale Loreta, a square near to the railway station. 15 Partisans had been shot there
in August 1944, and the bodies were left and by 9am a huge crowd had gathered. The bodies
were beaten, spat at and were desecrated and kicked, to the point where Mussolini was so
badly disfigured he was not recognisable. Then the bodies were hanged by their feet
from the metal framework of a half built service station, and they were hanged upside down
as a shame. People continued to throw things but the sight of Mussolini’s remains above
the crowd were haunting and shocking. But then at 2pm, on the 29th April American soldiers
came to the square, and they ordered the bodies to be cut down and they were then taken to
the morgue in Milan for autopsy. It was confirmed that Mussolini had been shot and killed by
a number of bullets, either 7 or 9 bullets. Four were said to have been near the heart
and were considered the cause of death.
However one of the biggest impacts of Mussolini’s death was not inside of Italy, but it was
inside of a bunker in Berlin. Hitler found out about Mussolini’s execution and also
the display of his remains in Milan. With this he decided that he was to end his own
life and that preparations would be made to ensure that his body did not fall into the
hands of his enemies and also this was said of Eva Braun, his wives remains. It was said
that, ‘if he did learn of the full gory tale of Mussolini’s death, it could have
done no more than confirm his anxiety to take his own life before it was too late and to
prevent his body from being seized by his enemies.’
Mussolini would later be reinterred inside the Mussolini family crypt in 1947, after
his remains had been dug up and were actually stolen by fascists. On the anniversary of
his death, many fascists make a pilgrimage to his tomb, and thousands of people attend
the graveside. Mussolini was a man who stuck with his close friend Hitler to take Italy
into the Second World War, and ultimately their involvement in the war was no successful
at all. He was a fascist who seized control of Italy decades before the war, and there
were many people who looked up to him including Hitler. However he met his brutal end at the
side of a road near to Lake Como, with an executioner firing at close range killing
him and his mistress, before their remains were shown in front of a huge crowd in Milan.
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