Toward the end of the fascist regime in Italy, its leader, Benito Mussolini, was captured and taken away to keep him out of the hands of the Germans and his followers in hopes to use him as a bargaining chip when it came to working out an armistice with the Allies. Naturally, the Germans soon realized something was afoot and started searching for him. The group that took Mussolini was quite adept at staying ahead of the Germans and he was moved several times before finally being housed at the mountain winter resort hotel at Gran Sasso in the central part of Italy. This area was perfect as the only way to get to the hotel was by cable car.

Eventually the Germans got wind of where he was and quickly developed a plan of how to rescue him from his captors. The job was given by General Kurt Student to the very capable Major Harold Mors. Mors had literally hours to develop a plan, something that was quite difficult due to the lack of information about the hotel and it surroundings. None of this was helped by the inclusion of a group of SS troops lead by SS Hauptsturmfuhrer Otto Skorzeny. While his cohorts were fighting in Russia, Skorzeny was busy networking with the leadership in the cafes of Berlin. This allowed him to be put in charge of several operations. Despite Skorzeny's lack of abilities, he had good men working for him which allowed him to take credit for their efforts. As such, Hitler insisted that Skorzeny be included in the operation, despite his men's lack of training in assaults of this type.

And the assault was to be glider-borne using Student's superbly trained fallschirmjaeger (parachute assault troops). Mors has to be credited with providing a superb plan that was fraught with danger and could have easily been thwarted at several instances had the Italian forces been willing to actively participate in stopping them. By this time, the Italian Armistice was in effect and by all regards, Italy was officially out of the war on the Axis side and part of the Allies. However, many Italians just wanted things to be over and this may well account for the ease at which the Germans were able to carry out the raid.

Though the glider assault portion of the event was quite dangerous and daring, all of the gliders managed to land somewhat safely, though there was no way to safely remove them from the area once the operation was over. Skorzeny and his horribly airsick SS troops managed to be the first to land and in an act of bravado, Skorzeny rushed out of the glider towards the hotel. However, it was the back and there was no entrance in that area. Moving towards the front, he was stopped by a short wall that he was unable to get over (though any of the fallschirmjaeger troops could have). He also realized that he had rushed forward with little more than a pistol so wisely waited for some of his troops to arrive. They hoisted him and others over the wall where they easily got through the now unguarded  entrance and into where Mussolini was being held.

The rest of the troops eventually took over the hotel without firing a shot in anger and with few casualties, most of those caused by the crash landing of a couple of gliders. Mussolini was rescued and the stupid decision was made to fly him off in a light aircraft. Naturally Skorzeny, who was never far from Mussolini or the photographers, was insistent that he go as well. This seriously overloaded the plane as Mussolini was not a light person and despite his efforts to rid himself of Skorzeny, the man squeezed himself aboard. Eventually the plane staggered into the air and into history. Skorzeny got all the press for the efforts of others as is usual and while it really steamed Student and Mors, there was little that could be done.

In all, this is a book that was fascinating to read. It is one of those real life operations that one would swear was scripted by Hollywood. A superb read and one that I'm positive you will find a pleasure to read.

August 2010

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