Freeing Mussolini: Dismantling the Skorzeny Myth in the Gran Sasso Raid

By Óscar González López

The untold inside story of the audacious Nazi plot to rescue il Duce from an Allied prison.
 
The operation to free Mussolini, who was being held prisoner in a high mountain hotel on the summit of Gran Sasso, Italy, in September 1943, is without a doubt one of the most spectacular operations not only of the Second World War, but in all military history.
 
German paratroopers, the Wehrmacht’s elite, were responsible for organizing the rescue in record time, and executing a daring and perfectly synchronized operation between land and airborne detachments. Surprise and speed were the Fallschirmjäger’s main weapons, surprising the Italian garrison guarding il Duce. For political reasons Otto Skorzeny, the clever SS officer, also participated in the operation, leading a dozen of his commandos. Propaganda and his connections with Himmler made him into the false hero of the mission, over-emphasizing his role in the whole search and rescue operation.
 
Based on the testimony of several protagonists in this incredible operation, as well as analyzing major documents (letters, reports by General Kurt Student, etc.) and the abundant literature available on the subject, this book dismantles the “Skorzeny Myth” and reveals the truth of what really happened in a mission that even Churchill called “one of great daring.”
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Aug 30, 2018
• ISBN: 9781526719997

Book preview

Introduction

‘THERE IS NO HERO OF THE GRAN SASSO, BECAUSE IN THE GRAN SASSO THERE WERE NO HEROES’

(Harald Mors, Il Tempo Abruzzo, 10 September 1993)

During the night of 11-12 September I was informed that the Allies did not intend to keep me alive (…). It was 2 pm when I saw the first glider landing, later others landed successively; then groups of men advanced towards the building, determined to eliminate any resistance. The guards that watched me didn’t understand what was happening and didn’t shoot. It all lasted five minutes. The undertaking, exponent of the organisation, the initiative and spirit of the Germans, will be remembered in the history of the war. As time goes by it will become legendary.

With these prophetic words, Mussolini himself described the intrepid operation that set him free from his captors in the Hotel Campo Imperatore. Ever since the king had ordered his arrest, following his destitution by the Great Fascist Council in July, Mussolini had become a precious cargo for Badoglio, who was determined to offer him over to the Allies in a gesture that would accompany his capitulation and would also reaffirm his intention of not continuing the war on the side of Hitler’s Germany.

Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler in an Italian propaganda postcard from 1938. Five years later, il Duce fell into disgrace.

Mussolini leaving the Hotel Campo Imperatore after being freed by German paratroopers. Behind him is Inspector Giuseppe Gueli.(B)

The afternoon of 12 September 1943 will go down in the history of the Second World War. Some people have defined the operation as the best command action of the entire war, and even Churchill himself did not spare any praise: as soon as the liberation of il Duce was known, he said to the House of Commons, ‘Knowing that il Duce was hidden in a safe place and that the Government of Badoglio was committed to handing him over to the Allies, a daring attack, completely beyond all foresight, prevented this from happening.’ The operation was a complete military success. In a war that Germany was irretrievably losing, as it bled on all fronts, Nazi propaganda was in need of a spectacular and triumphant action and seized on the opportunity to endorse the event, even creating a fake liberator: Otto Skorzeny. On 14 September it was reported that the operation to free Mussolini ‘had been prepared by a special SS commando, led by an eminent Austrian SS-Hauptsturmführer from the SD Security Service’.

The real protagonists, the Fallschirmjäger (paratroopers) from I./FJR 7, were relegated to the background and their pretensions of getting a fair and correct appraisal of the facts were dramatically silenced. This work aims to reconstruct the operation carried out in the Gran Sasso based on testimonies from the legitimate protagonists: the Fallschirmjäger.

With this purpose, inspiration has been found in the main bibliographic references that have appeared since the end of the war. The contempt for the official version among the paratroopers gained ground from 1950. We have also used - and this is what makes this work somewhat new - the direct testimonies of nine men who took part in Mussolini’s rescue. This collaboration is what makes the Gran Sasso raid become a ‘living historical’ event, capable of being reconstructed and reinterpreted.

Generic assault badge with Assmann marking. (COG)

Nevertheless, we have chosen the path of objectivity, the separation of ideologies and emotions, aware that we are studying the delicate pages of history. We recognise the rising value that every event takes on over time and a serene distance from the facts allows us to illuminate them in a fairer light. Likewise, we pay heed to the great philosopher Ortega, who said that ‘Each person is the best history book’. Having these direct memories from nine of the participants in the mission is a privilege for a lover of history, and this research would not have been possible without them.

1. Mussolini on board the F1-156 that flew him out of Gran Sasso. (B)

2. The friendship between Hitler and Mussolini was certified following the operation, after the former ordered the release of his dear, Italian ally. (CLM)

1

The Operation Begins

On 24 July 1943, fourteen days after the start of the Allied invasion of Sicily, the Italian Grand Council of Fascism met for the first time since 1939. The following morning, a vote of no confidence was passed by an absolute majority requesting that although Mussolini was not to be completely removed from power, the king would now take control of the army for the first time since Italy entered the war on 10 June 1940.

This decision is historically significant because it gave the monarch the motive to remove Mussolini, whose downfall had been prepared through a coup d’etat inspired and raised by the military and those close to the monarch. In any case, the vote of the Grand Council of Fascism served as a pretext to remove Mussolini.

As he left the king’s residence, Mussolini was put in an ambulance and taken under arrest to the Podgora Carabinieri Headquarters in the Trastevere area of Rome. In the afternoon he was transferred to the Carabinieri Cadet School in vía Legnano, where he stayed until 27 July.

Immediately after the fall of Mussolini became known, Hitler seriously considered occupying the Italian Peninsula (Operation Schwarz). Other operations he considered included: the occupation of Rome and the Vatican, including the arrest of the royal family and all politicians and officers who opposed the alliance with Germany; reinstalling the fascist regime in Italy (Operation Alarico); the destruction of the Italian fleet (Operation Achse) and the liberation of Mussolini (Operation Eiche). The latter would be assigned to XI Fliegerkorps (XI Air Command) under the command of General Kurt Student and the objective of freeing Mussolini soon became a priority.

The Campo Imperatore hotel was located next to a ski station in the Gran Sasso, Italy. (COG)

Postcard from the 1930s advertising the Campo Imperatore hotel. (COG)

To accomplish the mission (code-named Operation Eiche (Operation Oak) from 1 August 1943) the first objective was to discover the whereabouts of il Duce, who had been missing without a trace since his last audience with the king. After staying in Rome, on 27 July he was taken to the coastal port of Gaeta, accompanied by the chief of the military police of the Supreme Command, General Francesco Saverio Pólito. Once on-board the corvette Persefone, he arrived on the island of Ponza at 12:00 on 28 July, where he was kept in an isolated house before spending three weeks in a private villa on the island of La Maddalena, where he had arrived on 7 August.

Initially, Student did not inform anyone about his special mission to free il Duce. He did not even say anything to Otto Skorzeny, the Austrian SS-Hauptsturmführer¹ whom Himmler had originally selected, together with a