logo
episode-header-image
Apr 2023
52m 22s

190 - Mussolini's Last 10 Days

Angus Wallace
About this episode

In April 1945, with the Allies closing in, the Italian dictator, Benito Mussolini, with his German bodyguards, decided to flee Milan. The convoy was later joined by a Luftwaffe column retreating toward Germany, making a powerful force.

In this episode, we're going to be looking at Mussolini's last days and the race between the OSS, the SOE and the Italian partisans to kill or capture him.

I am joined by Malcolm Tudor.

Malcolm is an Anglo-Italian author specialising in Italy during WWII. He was last with us in episode 86, discussing the SAS in Italy. His new book is Mussolini, The Last 10 Days, A New Investigation.

 

Patreon
patreon.com/ww2podcast

 

Up next
Yesterday
304 - Eisenhower and Churchill
The partnership between Dwight D. Eisenhower and Winston Churchill was one of the defining relationships of the Second World War. At the heart of the Anglo American alliance, they worked closely to plan major operations, manage coalition warfare, and steer the Allies towards vict ... Show More
1h 1m
Apr 20
303 - The Link Trainer
Before the Second World War, learning to fly by instruments was one of the most difficult and dangerous skills a pilot had to master. Training had to be done in real aircraft, often in poor weather, and accidents were common. In the late 1920s, an American inventor named Edwin Al ... Show More
43m 6s
Apr 15
302 - Task Force Hogan
My guest today is William Hogan, and we are going to be talking about the remarkable story of his father, Sam Hogan, and the men of Task Force Hogan. At just twenty-eight, Sam was one of the youngest lieutenant colonels in the US Army, commanding a battalion of Sherman tanks in t ... Show More
40m 16s
Recommended Episodes
Nov 2022
Mussolini's Rise & Fall
Exactly a century after the 1922 March on Rome which brought fascist dictator Benito Mussolini to power, the far-right party Brothers of Italy have been voted into government.Fratelli d'Italia (FDL), which has its roots in Italy’s post-war Neo-fascist social movement, is lead by ... Show More
51m 9s
Aug 2020
Mussolini
<p>September 1943, and German troops have just landed in gliders to rescue Benito Mussolini from the mountain resort where he was being held. “I knew my friend Adolf Hitler would not desert me,” he said later. But Mussolini died before the end of the war, shot and then strung up ... Show More
29m 16s
Dec 2023
399. The Savage Storm: World War II and The Battle for Italy
The Battle for Italy in 1943 proved to be one of the bloodiest and most brutal episodes of the Second World War. Following hot on the heels of their recent victory in Sicily, the Allies crossed the Straits of Messina and entered Italy in September, to fight their way up the Itali ... Show More
49m 15s
Nov 2022
Mussolini's Favourite Daughter
<p>What do we know about the people who shared the surname Mussolini with the Italian fascist dictator?</p><br><p>Edda Mussolini may have been Benito’s daughter, but she was also the wife of a convicted traitor, an unwilling mother and a hard-drinking socialite.</p><p>&nbsp;</p>< ... Show More
40m 6s
Sep 2023
Hitler: Mussolini’s Prison Break (Part 23)
In Italy, Il Duce is overthrown. So Hitler stages a daring mission to rescue his fascist partner. With the Red Army rampant, another epochal battle sends the Wehrmacht on the retreat. Soon, more bad news will reach the Berghof, as Allied troops start landing in Normandy. But with ... Show More
51m 1s
May 2023
World War II victory in North Africa
Peter Royle, 103, endured a month of solid fighting in the hills outside of Tunis in 1943. Eventually the Allies prevailed and took more than 250,000 German and Italian prisoners of war. They declared victory in Tunisia on 13 May. Peter came close to dying many times. He recalls ... Show More
11m 32s
Jun 2022
194. The First Fascist
Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook discuss the 'first' fascist, Gabriele D'Annunzio, with historian Lucy Hughes-Hallett. D'Annunzio was a key figure in Italian literature before becoming a political figure later in his life. Although never personally identifying with fascism, his ... Show More
1h 3m
Jul 2023
The Late, Great Stephen Ambrose: WWII and Getting Down to Business (The Italian Campaign)
On this episode of Our American Stories, even before the U.S./British victory in the North African campaign in May 1943, there was disagreement among the Allies on the best strategy to defeat the Axis. Eventually the U.S. and British political leadership reached a compromise in w ... Show More
30m 17s
May 2023
World War II victory in North Africa
Peter Royle, 103, endured a month of solid fighting in the hills outside of Tunis in 1943. Eventually the Allies prevailed and took more than 250,000 German and Italian prisoners of war. They declared victory in Tunisia on 13 May. Peter came close to dying many times. He recalls ... Show More
11m 32s