DUCE'S RESCUE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 65, 14 September 1943, Page 5

DUCE'S RESCUE

GERMAN REPORTS

NOW "IN A BIG CITY"

(By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright.) LONDON, September 13. According to the Swiss radio, German parachutists rescued Mussolini in Sicily, near Palermo, whence he was taken to the Italian mainland by plane.

A statement issued in London says Mussolini has not been in Allied hands, nor had the Allies known where he was being held.

The "Daily Mail" says that an Italian official who was closely concerned with events leading up to the Italian capitulation and who recently arrived in Allied territory described Mussolini as "a spent force-4prematurely aged, and a pathetic, humbled, fearful figure." The official stated that Mussolini after his arrest was imprisoned on Poutine Island, near Rome.

Rec. noon. LONDON, Sept. 13. Members of Hitler's personal bodyguard and parachute troops, under the command of an Austrian Storm Troop leader, rescued Mussolini "from an almost inaccessible" mountain fastness in southern Italy, declares Berlin radio, which adds that the plan to free Mussolini was prepared with the greatest difficulty. The Badoglio Government tried to keep Mussolini's whereabouts a secret by using extraordinary measures designed to hide .every trace of the Duce, and his place of confinement has been changed several times since his resignation on July 25. He was taken to prison and then to barracks islands, and even on to warships every few days, and the task of guarding him was entrusted to large military units which were changed regularly. Carabinieri formed the nucleus of his guard, with" orders to shoot Mussolini if anyone attempted to rescue him. His latest prison was discovered within the last few days. He was taken to an almost inaccessible massif where he was kept a prisoner in shameful conditions, with extra guards, preparatory to being handed over to the British. The speed with which the rescuers worked did not enable the guard to put up a fight. Mussolini was rushed to' the nearest German aerodrome, from which a fast plane took him to safety. Hitler conferred high honours on his rescuers, who had carried out. a daring operation.

Berlin radio declared that Mussolini has suffered for many years from a gastric disease which has grown worse in the last few months. Immediately after- his release Mussolini telephoned to Hitler. Mussolini's family later joined him, having been released from captivity by special detachments of Black Guards.

FORMING OF NEW GOVERNMENT.

Berlin radio tonight quoted reports from the Italian-Swiss frontier stating that Mussolini was believed to have been taken by air to Rommel's headquarters in northern Italy. It added that Mussolini's entourage was reported to include Signor Farinadci and other Fascists who had been liberated in the past few days by the Germans.

A German overseas radio commentator stated that Mussolini is now in a big city. "The Duce is very exhausted by his hard experiences during six weeks of imprisonment," he said. "After preliminary questions have been settled Mussolini will form a Government from among the most capable and energetic leading Fascists \fho were able to escape. The Duce is reviewing the question of choosing a town in northern Italy as the provisional capital of-the Fascist Government."

The "Daily Mail" says in an editorial: "It is wrong to treat the rescue of Mussolini as unimportant and to regard it as a comic episode. The German Government has shown itself still capable of the swift action which once paralysed Europe and which even now is worthy of emulation from our viewpoint. This development should be taken very seriously. It shows that the Germans are reacting energetically to the situation in Italyj and that Hitler is by no means disposed to abandon the Axis interest in the ideology of that country/* .^