The Gran Sasso raid refers to Operation Eiche, the rescue of Italian dictator
Benito Mussolini by German paratroopers led by Major Otto-Harald Mors and
Waffen-SS commandos in September 1943, during World War II. The airborne
operation was personally ordered by Adolf Hitler, planned by Harald Mors,
and approved by General Kurt Student. Overview
On the night between 24 and 25 July 1943, a few weeks after the Allied
invasion of Sicily and bombing of Rome, the Italian Grand Council of Fascism
voted a motion of no confidence against Mussolini. On the same day, the king
replaced him with Marshal Pietro Badoglio and had him arrested.
Mussolini was being transported around Italy by his captors, while
Hauptsturmführer Otto Skorzeny—selected personally by Hitler and Ernst
Kaltenbrunner to carry out the mission—was tracking him.
Intercepting a coded Italian radio message, Skorzeny used the
reconnaissance provided by the agents and informants of SS-Obersturmbannführer
Herbert Kappler to determine that Mussolini was being imprisoned at Campo
Imperatore Hotel, a ski resort at Campo Imperatore in Italy's Gran Sasso massif,
high in the Apennine Mountains. On 12 September 1943, Skorzeny's 26 SS
troopers joined the team of 82 Fallschirmjäger to rescue Mussolini in a
high-risk glider mission. The commandos landed their dozen DFS 230 gliders on
the mountain; only one crashed, causing minor injuries. The Fallschirmjäger and
Skorzeny's special troopers then overwhelmed Mussolini's captors without
a single shot being fired; this was also due to the fact that General Fernando
Soleti of Polizia, who flew in with Skorzeny, told them to stand down or be
executed for treason. Skorzeny attacked the radio operator and his equipment,
then he formally greeted Mussolini with "Duce, the Führer has sent me to set you
free!", to which Mussolini replied "I knew that my friend would not forsake
me!" Mussolini was first flown from Campo
Imperatore in a Luftwaffe Fieseler Fi 156C-3/Trop Storch STOL liaison
aircraft, Werknummer 1268, initially flown in by Hauptmann Heinrich Gerlach,
then taking off with Mussolini and Skorzeny to the military airport of
Pratica di Mare then embarked in an Heinkel He 111 on to Vienna, where
Mussolini stayed overnight at the Hotel Imperial and was given a hero's welcome.
The Storch involved in rescuing Mussolini bore the radio code letters,
or Stammkennzeichen, of "SJ + LL" in motion picture coverage of the rescue.
The operation on the ground at Campo Imperatore was in fact led by First
Lieutenant Baron Georg Freiherr von Berlepsch, commanded by Major
Otto-Harald Mors and under orders from General Kurt Student, all
Fallschirmjäger officers; but Skorzeny stewarded the Italian leader first into
Rome and eventually into Berlin, right in front of the cameras. . After a
pro-SS propaganda coup at the behest of SS Reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler and
propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, Skorzeny and his Special Forces of the
Waffen-SS were granted the majority of the credit for the operation. The
Friedenthaler of the SS-Reichssicherheitshauptamt were for
the Waffen-SS what the Brandenburgers were for the Wehrmacht and Abwehr.
Aftermath The operation granted a rare late-war
public relations opportunity to Hermann Göring. Mussolini was made leader of the
Italian Social Republic. Otto Skorzeny gained a large amount of success from
this mission; he received a promotion to Sturmbannführer, the award of the
Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and fame that led to his "most dangerous man
in Europe" image. Winston Churchill himself described the mission as "one of
great daring". The Campo Imperatore Hotel still exists.
The hotel maintains Mussolini's bedroom just as it was when he left it, with the
same furnishings. Awards
Almost all of the members of the operation received an award. The most of
them were awarded the Iron Cross, four were awarded the Knight's Cross of the
Iron Cross and nine were awarded the German Cross in Gold.
= Knight's Cross = Student, Kurt, 27 September 1943,
General der Fallschirmtruppe, K. G. XI. Flieger-Korps [LL-Korps]
Skorzeny, Otto, 13.09.1943, SS-Hauptsturmführer d. R., Kdr
SS-Sonderverband z. b. V. Friedenthal Gerlach, Heinrich, 19.09.1943,
Hauptmann, Flugzeugführer beim K. G. XI. Flieger-Korps [pilot Fieseler Storch]
Meyer, Elimar, 17.09.1943, Leutnant Pilot eines Lastenseglers i. d.
III./LL-Geschw 1 = German Cross in Gold =
Freiherr von Berlepsch, Georg, 1 November 1943, Oberleutnant, Chef
1./Fsch.Jäg.Rgt 7 [1./Fsch.Jäg-Lehr.Btl] Mors, Otto-Harald, 01.11.1943, Major I.
G., Kdr I./Fsch.Jäg.Rgt 7 [Fsch.Jäg-Lehr.Btl]
Langguth, Gerhard, 01.11.1943, Hauptmann, Ic XI. Flieger-Korps
[Verbandsführer/flight leader] Heidenreich, Johannes, 26.09.1943,
Oberleutnant, Staffelkapitän 12.[III.]/LL-Geschw 1
Neelmeyer, Hans, 26.09.1943, Oberfeldwebel, Pilot eines Lastenseglers
i. d. 12.[III.]/LL-Geschw 1 Lohrmann, Heiner, 26.09.1943, Feldwebel,
Pilot eines Lastenseglers i. d. 12.[III.]/LL-Geschw 1
Thielmann, Gustav, 26 September 1943, Unteroffizier, Pilot eines Lastenseglers
i. d. 12.[III.]/LL-Geschw 1 Neitzel, Robert, 15 September 1943,
SS-Unterscharführer, SS-Sonderverband z. b. V. Friedenthal
Holzer, Hans, 15 September 1943, SS- Rottenführer, SS-Sonderverband z. b. V.
Friedenthal See also
SS-Jagdverband Mitte Brandenburgers
Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts
References Further reading
Gonzalez Lopez, Oscar. Fallschirmjager at the Gran Sasso: The Liberation of
Mussolini by the German Parachutist on the 12th September 1943.
Patricelli, Marco. Mondadori, ed. Liberate il Duce. Le Scie. ISBN
88-04-48860-3. Forczyk, Robert; Rescuing Mussolini –
Gran Sasso 1943, Osprey Raid Series #9; Osprey Publishing; ISBN
978-1-84603-462-6 Antonio Munoz: Forgotten Legions:
Obscure Combat Formations of the Waffen-SS, Axis Europa Inc, ISBN
978-0739408179 External links
3squadron.org.au: Unique photos uncovered — Mussolini's Rescue from Gran
Sasso in September 1943