Hitler's Raid to Save Mussolini: The Most Infamous Commando Operation of World War IIThe Allied invasion of Italy pressed on through the summer of 1943, the strutting dictator, Mussolini, was overthrown and imprisoned by his own people in a remote mountaintop resort. Furious at the turn of events, Adolf Hitler, Il Duce's sworn ally, promised to rescue Mussolini and restore the Rome-Berlin Axis. On September 12, a small convoy of glider aircraft suddenly began crash-landing near the hotel-prison where Mussolini was held and German commandos poured out of the half-wrecked planes. The soldiers quickly overwhelmed the hotel and seized Mussolini, who had watched the drama unfold from a second-story window. "I knew my friend Adolf Hitler would not abandon me," said a grinning Mussolini to his rescuers. Hitler's rescue of Mussolini was one of the most famous commando operations of the twentieth century and shocked a war-weary world. It was also the dramatic culmination of the bizarre relationship between Hitler and Mussolini-a relationship that had disastrous consequences for the globe. In this vivid and lively narrative filled with drama, intrigue, action, and some of history's most notorious characters, author Greg Annussek recounts the dramatic story of Germany's secret six-week operation to find and rescue the prisoner Mussolini and restore him to power. |
Contents
Chapter 2 | 21 |
Chapter 3 | 37 |
Chapter 4 | 59 |
Chapter 5 | 81 |
Chapter 6 | 99 |
Chapter 8 | 123 |
Chapter 9 | 137 |
Chapter 11 | 169 |
Chapter 12 | 183 |
Chapter 13 | 199 |
Chapter 14 | 213 |
Epilogue | 237 |
The Story of Operation Oak | 261 |
307 | |
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Hitler's Raid to Save Mussolini: The Most Infamous Commando Operation of ... Greg Annussek No preview available - 2006 |
Common terms and phrases
According Allies armistice August Axis Badoglio regime began believed Benito Mussolini Berlepsch Berlin Campo Imperatore carabinieri Castellano Churchill Ciano Commando Operations Davis Deakin Defends Rome Denis Mack Smith diary dictator Doenitz Dollmann Duce Duce's enemy entry dated Fascist fighting forces Fuehrer Conferences Galeazzo Ciano Garland and Smyth Gerlach German German troops Germany's glider Goebbels Gran Sasso Gueli Herbert Kappler Hibbert Himmler Hitler Hoettl Hotel Imperatore Ibid intelligence invasion island Italian coup Italy's Jodl July 25 Kappler Keitel Kesselring Kesselring's king and Badoglio La Maddalena landing Langguth Luftwaffe Mackensen Maddalena Maugeri McRaven Memoirs miles military Monelli Mors NATIONAL ARCHIVES Nazis northern Italy officer Operation Oak paratroopers pilot plane plans Plehwe political Ponza prisoner Radl raid recalled rescue Ribbentrop Rome Rommel Salerno Santo Stefano Secret Missions seemed September September 12 Sicily Skorzeny Skorzeny's soldiers Soleti solini Student surrender tion told Ventotene Victor Emmanuel Villa Warger Warlimont Wiskemann Wolf's Lair