In early 1943, the Second World War was in full swing, the fortunes of the Axis Powers
seemed to have turned.
On July 25th that year, two weeks after the Allied powers invaded Sicily, the King of
Italy Victor Emanuel the Third ordered the arrest of Benito Mussolini, following a vote
of no confidence from the Fascist Grand Council.
This new government, under Marshal Pietro Badoglio started secret peace negotiations
with the Allied powers.
Now, to the Germans, it was of vital importance that this new government not sue for peace,
or even worse, switch sides to the Allied powers.
Hitler figured the only way to prevent this from happening, was to have Benito Mussolini
rescued, and put him back in power...
What followed was one of the most daring special operations and, admittedly, incredible stories
of the Second World War: the rescue ... of Benito Mussolini.
-intro-
Mussolini arrested
Alright, so after Mussolini was removed from power, Italian King Victor Emanuel III replaced
him with Marshal Pietro Badoglio.
The new government made sure Mussolini was moved, in utter secrecy, to an island off
the coast of Sardinia.
When news reached Hitler, who resided in his bunker, the Wolf’s Lair in East Prussia,
he decided it was of vital importance to rescue Mussolini in order to ensure Italy would remain
at Germany’s side during the war.
The 35-year-old Austrian Otto Skorzeny was the man to lead the operation to rescue Mussolini.
Given command of a group of paratroopers, or fallschirmjäger in German, he would lead
the mission that would become one of the most daring operations of the entire war.
Skorzeny was a tall, scar-faced Austrian.
Battle Hardened by his exploits in France, Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union.
By 1943 he was promoted as part of the Security Office, and occupied himself with secret missions
and undercover work.
Interestingly enough, before he was contacted about the mission to rescue Mussolini, he
studied Abwehr files on British commandos, Special Air Service forces, US marines among
other elite troops.
He was planning a raid into Persia and the Ural mountains of Russia.
But then, in July, word got out that the Italian Fascist Grand Council had removed Benito Mussolini
from power and Skorzeny’s plans rapidly changed.
Now, Skorzeny had never met Hitler nor heard about the secret Wolf Lair in East Prussia.
He was summoned to the Wolf’s Lair and met Hitler personally.
As he met Hitler, the latter confided in him that he had to carry out a task of the utmost
importance that will “have a tremendous effect upon the course of the war”.
The entire mission fell under the command of Kurt Student, a General of the Luftwaffe
and commander of these German Fallschirmjäger.
Skorzeny requested a few dozen men and a list of requirements.
These ranged from the obvious machine guns and weaponry to priests’ robes.
Once collected, the men flew to Rome where they met Field Marshal Albert Kesselring,
the German commander in chief in Italy.
Kesseling told the men that the Italians had assured him Mussolini was in Rome.
But Badoglio, unbeknownst to the Germans, had ordered to move Mussolini to an island
off the coast.
Both the Germans and Italians kept up an elaborate game of deception and false friendship, until
the eventual break-up of their alliance could be spun into an advantage for either side.
Skorzeny spent weeks investigating and reviewing intelligence.
Finally, he managed to pin down Mussolini’s location to Ponza, a small island in the Tyrrhenian
Sea of the Italian West Coast.
But, fate had it that just as Skorzeny started planning the operation, the Italian government
moved Mussolini to Maddalena, to the north-east of Sardinia.
Mussolini on the Move
Skorzeny used many Abwehr agents and contacts in Italy in order to confirm Mussolini’s
supposed whereabouts.
The German Luftwaffe confirmed that the island had suddenly upped its level of defenses,
more or less confirming the presence of an important person.
It wasn’t as clear cut as identifying Mussolini’s whereabouts and rescuing him, however.
During a reconnaissance mission in an aircraft where Skorzeny decided to tag along, they
were shot down by the British Royal Air Force.
Crashing in the sea without any major injuries, it is rather ironic that the group of German
special units was rescued by an Italian anti-aircraft ship there to guard Mussolini against a rescue
attempt.
Skorzeny and the group returned to the mainland, disguised as German sailors.
Once again, the Germans had to rely on their intelligence assets, bribings and reconnaissance
missions in order to exactly pinpoint Mussolini’s whereabouts on the island.
A German intelligence officer got lucky when he asked around and a local vegetable trader
took him to the Villa Weber on the island.
Patiently waiting outside, the officer observed the heavily-guarded villa and actually managed
to spot Mussolini, confirming his whereabouts.
The vegetable trader was paid a handsome reward (though many of it counterfeit money) and
Skorzeny made new plans: a full-scale special unit assault.
On the 28th of August they were to storm the Villa.
What the Germans didn’t know was that one day before the assault, in the vicinity of
the Villa, a civilian seaplane with Red Cross Markings, seemingly unrelated to the events
about the transpire, took off and flew east..
When the German intelligence officers made their rounds the next day in order to finalize
the preparations for the raid, they discovered Mussolini wasn’t there anymore.
He had boarded the Red Cross seaplane and was moved to a new secret location.
The operation was canceled at the last minute, understandably, much to the frustration of
Skorzeny and the fallschirmjäger.
Final Preparations
Skorzeny had to re-discover Mussolini’s location, and map out a new rescue mission.
Fortunately, SS officer Herbert Kappler contacted him with information that something… strange
was happening in the Abruzzi Mountains east of the city.
Security measures around the resort of Gran Sasso were increased, seemingly without reason.
The Germans concluded it could only be because of the fact that Mussolini was moved there.
A hotel-turned-prison, high up on the Campo Imperatore plateau was where Mussolini was
held.
The location was only to be reached by a cable car, impossible to reach by road.
It was the perfect prison, or so the Italians thought...
Now, it had to be confirmed Mussolini actually was there, and General Student got medical
officer Leo Krutoff to find out if the Italians would be willing to let the Wehrmacht use
Gran Sasso as a centre to recuperate for its troops.
When Krutoff tried to reach Gran Sasso, he was held back by Italian Carabinieri guards.
It was off-limits to outsiders, even the Germans.
Other reconnaissance missions were sent, but no agents were able to break through the many
Italian troops that protected the area.
In order to rescue Mussolini from this seemingly impenetrable prison, Skorzeny devised a plan
that his superiors didn’t even consider as serious.
One-hundred German paratroopers would glide through the mountains and land on Gran Sasso.
As the gliders were silent, they would not be detected by the Italians until they had
boots on the ground.
While Skorzeny’s senior officers had serious doubts, Hitler, who could appreciate a daring
plan and determination, approved the plan.
Three teams were now prepared, two to raid Gran Sasso and one to rescue Mussolini’s
family from their house arrest in their country-home.
The Gran Sasso Raid
On the twelfth of september 1943, twelve German aircraft towing gliders set off and flew towards
the Abruzzi mountains.
Otto Skorzeny’s right-hand man, Max Radl, thought it a good idea to bring along the
fascist carabinieri commander, General Fernando Soleti.
Adventurous as Soleti was, he agreed.
The reasoning for bringing him along was to ensure the Carabinieri troops that guarded
Mussolini would hold fire - the last thing the Germans wanted was an all-out firefight
with the Italians.
As Skorzeny and his team were up in the air and glanced out, they noticed two gliders
had vanished.
Considering there were several more, it shouldn’t have been a problem, had it not been for the
fact that the advance troops and the guide of the entire party were in them.
Skorzeny now had to direct the glider towards the location from memory.
Perhaps romanticized, perhaps not, it is said he slashed the canvas separating the paratrooper
cabin from the pilot and shouted instructions to the pilot.
He managed to guide the remaining gliders towards the Abruzzo mountains.
As they approached the plateau, it turned out the ground wasn’t level, but steeply
sloped.
Student had warned Skorzeny to under no circumstances order a crash landing if this turned out to
be the case….
And as such, completely against Student’s wishes, the gliders crash-landed as close
to the hotel as possible.
The paratroopers rushed towards the hotel entrance and bolted up the stairs, facing
many surprised Carabinieri guards.
Here’s where General Soleti came into action.
He ordered the two-hundred Carabeneries that guarded Mussolini to hold fire.
Immediately, the Germans deactivated the wireless transmitter before a signal could be sent
to other Italian troops.
Not a shot had been fired yet.
Mussolini was quickly located on the first floor.
The plan was to move him into a small Storch plane that was specifically designated to
bring the men back to Rome.
Now, this Fiesler Storch light aircraft was damaged while landing on the plateau - and
the only other plane was a Fiesler Storch observation aircraft that had yet to land…
Skorzeny communicated to the pilot that he was to land, and take Mussolini and him back
to safety.
The observation aircraft with pilot Captain Gerlach managed to land without suffering
much damage and Mussolini and Skorzeny now made ready to take off.
But, this light plane was overloaded with the 3 men in it, squashed together.
At first, Captain Gerlach even refused to take off with this much weight.
Skorzeny forced him to fly.
Reluctantly, Gerlach took off over the edge of the cliff, whereupon the plane plummeted
in the ravine below.
Gerlach, fortunately an able pilot, somehow managed to stabilize it and fly away.
When they reached Rome, Mussolini and Skorzeny boarded a Heinkel He 111 and flew to the Wolf’s
Lair in East Prussia, where Hitler welcomed them.
Skorzeny became famous within Germany, and his daring raid boosted the morale of the
battered German nation.
He was used in propaganda posters, radio broadcasts and papers.
He was the only man to be presented the Knight’s Cross on the same day he won it.
What was more important was that Mussolini set up a fascist state in northern Italy afterward,
and held the southern front.
The bloody war in Italy continued, under the command of Marshal Kesselring.
Among the German high command, Skorzeny became known as the daring trouble-shooter.
His next mission would not be until May nineteen-forty-four, as Yugoslavia became a destabilizing factor
for Nazi Germany.
But that mission, Operation Rösselsprung, is a story for another time.
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