Episode 38: the Italian Slog

After Mussolini was arrested by the carabinieri he was taken to their barracks and placed under arrest. His stay at the police barracks did not last long however as he was soon taken to the Hotel Campo Imperatore in the Gran Sasso d’Italia, a mountain retreat high in the Apennines reachable only by funicular railway up the steep mountain slope. This was completely unknown to Hitler or German intelligence though, as far as they knew Mussolini had disappeared after his arrest and rumors flew about his location, some saying he was in Spain, some that he had killed himself, and others that he was disguised as a commoner. Hitler set one SS lieutenant colonel, Otto Skorzeny, on the task of tracking down Il Duce and rescuing him.