Mediterranean and North Africa · Germany vs Italy
Gran Sasso raid
12 September 1943
German paratroops and SS commandos under Skorzeny landed by glider at the Campo Imperatore hotel and freed Mussolini without a shot. He was flown to Germany and installed as head of the Italian Social Republic in the north.
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Day by day
— Campo Imperatore
Mussolini has been moved four times since his arrest in July and is held at the ski hotel on the Campo Imperatore plateau, guarded by some 200 Carabinieri and reachable only by cable car. At about 14:00 twelve DFS 230 gliders come in over the mountain and land on the rocky slope beside the hotel; two break up. Ninety paratroops of the Fallschirmjager Lehr Battalion and Skorzeny's SS party are out and inside in four minutes, with an Italian general brought along to stop anyone firing, and not a shot is fired.
