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In September 1943 the dashing German special forces commander, Otto Skorzeny, led a daring commando raid to rescue Mussolini.
Throughout his lunch, Captain Otto Skorzeny, chief of Germany’s Special Forces, had had a nagging feeling that something was wrong. Leaving his coffee, he placed a call to his headquarters at Friedenthal. His nagging thoughts were answered: all of Berlin was trying to find him. He had orders to be at Tempelhof airfield by 1700 hours, ready to fly to Hitler’s wartime headquarters, the ‘Wolfs Lair’.
A Ju 52 was waiting to deliver Skorzeny in isolated splendour and his second in command, Lieutenant Karl Radl, had his dress uniform ready for him. The only light that Skorzeny could throw on this sudden call to visit Hitler was that the Italian government had fallen and that Mussolini was missing.
The aircraft touched down at Lotzen in East Prussia, where a Mercedes staff car was waiting. The car took Skorzeny to the HQ, stopping many times for his papers to be examined. At last, after waiting in an ante room, he was summoned into Hitler’s presence; The Fuehrer informed Skorzeny that Mussolini had been arrested and that it would be up to him to rescue Il Duce. He carried on, telling the young captain that it was to be a secret mission, only a small group of people would know of it, and that he would be nominally under the command of General Kurt Student, chief of airborne troops.
Skorzeny then spent several hours itemising the men and equipment that he might need in Italy, and had the requirements sent to his own HQ. He requested 50 men and included a shopping list that ranged from machine guns to priests’ robes. The following morning, he flew with General Student to Rome. Three days later the rest of his team arrived and the search for Mussolini moved into top gear. For several weeks, rumours abounded and were followed up, only to disappear as quickly as they had surfaced. Then, finally, the whereabouts of Mussolini was pinned down.
In Rome Skorzeny and his staff had toured the bars and cafes hoping to overhear any information that might give them a new clue. It was an intercepted, coded message, ‘Security measures around the Gran Sasso completed’, from a General Cueli to the Italian Ministry of the Interior, that put them on the scent. This was the break that they had been after it was known that Cueli was in charge of Mussolini.
It soon became obvious that the Hotel Albergo Rlfuglo on the Gran Sasso, a mountainous edge northeast of Rome, had been turned into a military camp with the only approach being by cable car. Several of Skorzeny’s men were sent into the area around the mountain hotel, but they could not get through the cordon of Italian troops Skorzeny decided to fly over the area in an He 111 to see the hotel for himself. Radl and the corps intelligence officer accompanied him. The plan was to photograph the whole of the area but when they tried the Roam camera they found that it was jammed. The only way they could take any pictures was to hangout of the rear turret and use a hand camera. This method was not to be recommended when dressed in light tropical uniform. On the first run Skorzeny was dangled out with Radl holding his legs. When he was hauled back into the aircraft, half frozen he discovered Radl roaring with laughter. Pulling rank he soon got rid of Radl’s hilarity by ordering another run this time dangling Radl out of the back.
On the return trip Skorzeny must have thought that the Allied air force had a personal vendetta against him. His aircraft was forced to hug the ground as American bombers and fighters attacked the German headquarters and the commando barracks at Frascati. The place was a wreck and the photo lab had been destroyed, as had a lot of the men’s kit. It was 8 September 1943. Italy had surrendered and on the 9th the Allies landed at Salerno.
The pictures were developed and panted, confirming what Skorzeny and Radl had seen from the air The squat hotel was situated on a small plateau, a small triangle of clear ground with the top station of the cable car on one side. Final confirmation of their intelligence came when it was reported that the local trade union was complaining that the hotel staff had been evicted ‘Simply to accommodate that fascist, Mussolini ‘ He was there.
General Student would supply 90 men for the landing and the commandos the rest. A second group of commandos and paras would, at the same time as the main assault, take control of the lower end of the cable car A third team would free Il Duce’s wife and family from house arrest at their country residence near Rocca delta Commata. Student ordered 12 DFS230 gliders and them tugs to carry the commandos but a would take at least three days to get them from the south of France. D day was fixed for dawn on 12 September. Skorzeny and Radl fleshed out the bare bones of the operation each glider could take a section of 10 men plus the pilot. The para intelligence officer would fly in the first glider and act as pathfinder. Skorzeny would travel in the third glider and Radl in the fourth.
The launch had to be put back several hours because the gliders had been delayed. It was also decided, at the last minute, that it would be a good idea to take an Italian officer, General Soletti, along to help with the guards When he arrived, Student, through an interpreter, told the general that at Hitler’s own request, he was to go on the raid and help reduce the possibility of bloodshed Soletti was very impressed and agreed to go along As the morning progressed, the tugs and gliders arrived and were at once refueled. Final briefings were held, and Student told the glider pilots that under no circumstances were they to crash-land.
At 1230 hours the air raid sirens went off, and everyone dashed for shelter. By 1300 the raid was over – the assault aircraft had been missed, but the runway had several holes along its length. The order was given for an immediate take off Skorzeny and Soletti shared a seat in a cramped glider. With a ceiling of 9000ft, the armada was ordered to assemble above the clouds.
Skorzeny’s pilot reported that the first two gliders had not made the rendezvous. Disaster had struck. Both of them never left the ground, running into craters on the runway. Skorzeny freed his knife and hacked away at the flimsy canvas that clad the glider. Through this small hole he was able to get his bearings and shout the route to the glider pilot, who then passed it on to the tug. As the hotel came into view he ordered the glider to release the towing line.
As the glider banked to the right it became obvious to both the pilot, Lieutenant Meyer, and Skorzeny that the landing site was not flat but a steep slope Meyer looked at Skorzeny for help. All that he could do was to order the pilot to bring the glider down. Disobeying General Students express order, the young pilot crash landed within 30ft of the hotel. Never one for half measures, Skorzeny thrust himself through the canvas and wood of the glider, and raced for tale hotel. The Italian guards lust stood in amazement as the gliders landed no one fired a shot.
Dashing through an open door Skorzeny found a signaller frantically trying to transmit a warning. A well-aimed boot sent the man flying and the butt of Skorzeny s machine pistol neatly fixed the transmitter. Discovering the room was a dead end the commandos retraced their steps. Rounding the corner of the hotel they were faced with a nine foot wall. Using Corporal Himmel’s back. Skorzeny was quickly over, followed by the rest of his squad. Total chaos reigned is the Germans pushed their way through the front door, while the Carabinieri tried to escape to the opposite direction. Later on, Skorzeny was to be amazed that not a single shot was fired during the first, crucial moments of the raid.
The commandos rushed up the main stairs and, opening the first door on the right found Mussolini and two officers. Second Lieutenant Schwerdt escorted the two officers out of the room, leaving his boss and Mussolini alone. They were not to remain by themselves for long the heads of two commandos who had climbed up a lightning conductor, appeared at the window.
Watching the remaining gliders coming in to land, Skorzeny was horrified to see the eighth glider, caught by a warm thermal, picked up like a paper plane and then sent crashing into the mountainside Sickened by the sight and hearing distant gunfire, he shouted for the senior Italian officer. A colonel was produced, and the surrender of the garrison demanded. The man asked for time to consider Skorzeny allowed him exactly one minute The colonel left the room and quickly returned with a glass of wine, which he offered to Skorzeny and formally surrendered Awhile bedspread was hung out of the window. The guards placed their weapons in the dining room, the officers were allowed to keep their pistols As the first Germans reached the hotel by the cable car, a message was sent to General Student, informing him that the raid was a success.
It had been planned that a Fieseler Storch should land in the valley with Skorzeny and Mussolini flying out from there. Unfortunately, the Storch damaged its undercarriage when it landed and would take some time to repair. This meant the only other possibility was for Captain Gerlach, who had been acting as a spotter, to land his Storch near the hotel itself.
A short landing strip was prepared by rolling the larger boulders to one side. The aircraft landed safely enough, but the captain was not amused by the idea of cramming in both Mussolini and Skorzeny. He was finally convinced by the use of the Fuhrer’s name. Once the aircraft had taken off, the rest of the troops would descend to the valley by cable car To guard against any trouble, two Italian officers would go with each load.
Mussolini sat in the rear seat with Skorzeny squeezed in the luggage space behind Commandos held onto the aircraft as the pilot built up the revs Suddenly, the aircraft raced forward and tried to rise It bounced down on its left landing wheel, then shot over the edge of the cliff. The pilot, fought with the aircraft and got it tinder control barely 100ft from the valley floor At Rome, the Storch had to make a two point landing because of the damaged wheel.
Skorzeny and Mussolini, after receiving a formal greeting from senior staff boarded an He 111 and flew straight to Vienna It was here that the celebrations and phone calls started. Just before midnight, there was a knock at Skorzeny’s door, it was the chief of staff of the Viennese garrison. Entering the room, he congratulated Skorzeny on the success of the mission. Removing the Knight’s Cross from his own neck he presented it to Skorzeny. By order of Hitler he was the first man to be presented with the Knight’s Cross on the day he had won it.
TRACKING THE QUARRY
After three fruitless weeks in Rome discounting rumours, Skorzeny was presented with the first hard facts: Mussolini had been moved from Rome on 27 July and taken to the naval base at Gaeta, some 120km south of the capital. From there, he had been transferred onto a corvette, the Persefone, which sailed for the island of Ponza on the 28th. However, before Skorzeny could prepare any rescue plans, other intelligence sources indicated that Mussolini had been moved again, to La Maddalena, an island off the northeast coast of Sardinia over the island to gather detailed photographic evidence.
On the 20th, Skorzeny began his preparations for the rescue mission, scheduled to take place on 27 August. In readiness for the raid, the commandos moved to the port of Anzio and Skorzeny ordered a more detailed look at the villa. Reaching the island on the 26th, Skorzeny and a fellow officer, Lieutenant Warger, tricked one of the Italian guards into revealing that Mussolini had been moved by seaplane to the Italian mainland. After landing at Braccianno, a lake in the mountains east of Rome, he had been placed under house arrest at Albergo Rifugia, a hotel situated 6500ft above the valley.
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Most accounts of the Gran Sasso raid that I’ve read invariably relate that Luftwaffe paratroopers Major Otto-Harald Mors and Oberleutnant Georg Freiherr von Berlepsch received nothing in the way of decorations for their role in the mission. In Horst Scheibert’s “Die Träger des Deutschen Kreuzes in Gold (Kriegsmarine, Luftwaffe, Waffen-SS) und Deutschen Kreuzes in Silber (Heer, Kriegsmarine, Luftwaffe, Waffen-SS)” and noticed BOTH received the German Cross in Gold on 1 November 1943. Perhaps somewhat belatedly, awards rendered in whole or in part for the Gran Sasso raid?
BOOK: Hitler’s Raid to Save Mussolini
