FallschirmjaGer at the Gran SASSO : The Liberation of Mussolini by German Parachutists on 12th September 1943

"On the night of the 11th to 12th September, I was made to understand that the allies would not keep me alive in their hands... It was 14:00 hours when I saw the first glider land, followed by others and then groups of men approached the refuge, prepared to eliminate any resistance. The guards watching over me couldn't understand what was happening and didn't fire. The whole thing lasted five minutes. The enterprise, example of the Germans' organisation, decision and sense of initiative would be remembered in the history of the war. In time it will become legendary." With these prophetic words, Mussolini himself described the audacious operation that freed him from his captors in the Hotel Campo Imperatore. On 12 September 1943, two months after he had been stripped of power by King Victor Emmanuel III, and sent to Gran Sasso, a mountain resort in central Italy where he was kept in complete isolation. Mussolini was rescued by the Germans in Operation Oak (Unternehmen Eiche). This was a raid planned by General Kurt Student and carried out by the infamous SS Lieutenant Colonel (Obersturmbannfuhrer) Otto Skorzeny. This book provides a complete, illustrated account of the controversial and dangerous liberation of one of history's most infamous leaders, Mussolini.