Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter Clare  April 28, 1945
[Mussolini]and his mistress made it to the Swiss border, only to discover that the guards had crossed over to the partisan side. Knowing they would not let him pass, he disguised himself in a Luftwaffe coat and helmet, hoping to slip into Austria with some German soldiers. His subterfuge proved incompetent, and he and Petacci were discovered by partisans and shot, their bodies then transported by truck to Milan, where they were hung upside down and displayed publicly for revilement by the masses. |
Peter
It was Rachele, Mussolini's wife, who tried to get into Switzerland, not Mussolini. It was Guido Buffarini-Guidi, the Fascist Minister of the Interior in the Salò Republic, who had pleaded with Mussolini to go to Switzerland but Mussolini rejected the proposal outright dismissing it as 'hardly serious'. The best account in English is here.
Mussolini: The Last 600 Days of Il Duce - Google Ricerca Libri Chapter 21 of the
Last Days of Mussolini by Ray Mosley.
Incidentally, there is absolutely no way that Fascist Republican Border Guards could go over to the Partisans in April 1945. It was far too late. I was there when this happened, scores of Fascists were summarily shot or hanged publicly. This was the end of a bitter and bloody civil war and tempers were running extremely high.
Peter