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Chapter Ten: The Fall of Mussolini
While Battleaxe was taking place and the Allies were making the final push to evict the Axis from North Africa, several key events were occurring inside Continental Europe which shall be discussed in this chapter.

As previously mentioned, the Nazis’ main objective was an invasion of the Soviet Union, which was code-named Operation Barbarossa. The failure of Sealion had resulted in the launch date of Barbarossa being postponed from May 1941 to May 1942, yet in April 1942, Hitler was informed that the Operation would have to be delayed once again – the invasion of Switzerland had proved to be a drain on German resources, with a large amount of munitions and supplies being wasted on attempting to force through into the Alps. As a result, the Wehrmacht did not have the correct equipment to launch Barbarossa, and so it would have to be delayed until August. This infuriated Hitler, who entered a fit of rage shortly after hearing the news, yet it would soon become apparent that the Führer would have to delay Barbarossa once again, as a result of events involving his ally, the Duce.

Since the Italian entry into the war in June 1940, the people of Italy had become more and more dissatisfied with Mussolini and the Fascist Government – all of Italy’s colonial possessions had been lost, while any Italian gains made in Europe were as a result of German intervention, and so they could hardly be described as Italian victories. This, combined with a major oil shortage in Italy which occurred as a result of losing Libya and overall dissatisfaction with the totalitarian regime established by Mussolini, meant that, by 1942, the Fascist Government was a bubble doomed to burst. And on July the 14th, just that happened.

King Victor Emmanuel III had been under pressure from his close family to remove Mussolini from office for a long period of time, as, the longer he remained Prime Minister, then more associated the Monarchy would be with the disastrous Fascist regime. On the 12th, a major protest erupted in Rome against Mussolini, which had to be squashed with a large amount of violence by soldiers and police officers loyal to the Duce. Upon hearing news of the riots and bloodshed, Victor Emmanuel came to the conclusion that dismissing Mussolini was necessary to ensure the survival of Italy. And so, on the 14th, when Mussolini attended an audience with Victor Emmanuel, the King proceeded to dismiss Mussolini, ordered his arrest, and renounced the thrones of Ethiopia and Albania, so as to distance himself from the actions of the Fascist Government.

This dramatic turn of events in Rome was followed up shortly afterwards by further decisions by the King - the members of the Grand Council of Fascism, a body established by Mussolini to run the Italian Government, were put under house arrest, while Victor Emmanuel invited Vittorio Emanuele Orlando, who had previously served as Prime Minister of Italy during the First World War, to form a new Government and become Prime Minister on the 15th. A day after accepting the King’s invitation, Orlando took his first major decision as Prime Minister, which was to request an armistice with Britain and the other Allied Powers, thereby allowing Italy to exit a conflict which was bringing about its own demise.

However, as it happened, Churchill and the British Government were unable to give a response to Orlando’s armistice request – for Hitler and the Nazi Government in Berlin soon learned of the overthrow of Mussolini, and the Führer immediately ordered action to be taken to reinstate the Duce in Rome. And so, on the 17th, twelve German divisions under the command of Erwin Rommel launched a full-scale invasion of Italy, which proved to be rather quick, due to the fact that the Italian Army was in something of a state of disarray following the overthrow of the Duce. By the 19th, German troops entered Rome, forcing Orlando and Victor Emanuele to flee to Naples. Upon securing the Italian capital, German forces released Mussolini from prison, yet, as it happened, the Duce would not receive the reinstatement he initially expected – as Mussolini was escorted from prison by ten German soldiers, an anti-Fascist partisan was able to enter the proximity of the former Prime Minister, and shot two bullets – one hit Mussolini’s chest, and the other hit his neck. Immediately afterwards, the partisan was shot dead by a German officer, while Mussolini fell to the floor. The former Duce had breathed his last.

While these events transpired in Rome, in Southern Italy, the German invasion force continued to advance. By the 21st, Naples had been captured by Rommel’s forces, forcing the King and the Italian Government to once again flee, this time to Palmero on the island of Sicily. Yet the German divisions refused to cease their advance, and by the 25th, the entirety of the Italian Peninsula had been overrun. Initially, Orlando requested that British troops be sent to Sicily so as to reinforce its defences in the event of a German attack – yet Churchill had to refuse this request, due to Britain’s pre-occupation with preparations for Battleaxe at the time. As a result of this, Victor Emmanuel and Orlando agreed to abandon Sicily and retreat to Allied-controlled territory to form a Government-in-exile. The exiled Italian Government arrived in Malta on the 27th, and subsequently flew to London, where they were greeted with warmth by the British Government, who allowed the Italians to form a Government-in-exile from the city.

Meanwhile, Germany subsequently re-organised its new Italian possessions – Northern Italy (including Italian Switzerland) was directly annexed into Greater Germany, so as to (according to the Nazi propaganda machine) ‘restore the borders of the First Reich’, while Central and Southern Italy became a German puppet state, the Italian Social Republic [1], which was governed by a junta of Fascists who had previously played a significant role in Mussolini’s Government. As a result of this, the Nazis had eliminated another potential threat on the Continent, but at a cost – the diversion of troops to invade Italy meant that Barbarossa was once again delayed, from August to September. However, many senior German officers agreed that launching the invasion in September would condemn it to failure, as it was too close to the start of the harsh Russian winter – and so, Barbarossa was delayed yet again to May 1943. As a result of this, the German invasion of Italy was, for the Nazis, something of a pyrrhic victory.

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[1] As a side-note, the Italian troops mentioned in the previous chapter which took part in the Tunisian Campaign were serving the Italian Social Republic.

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