Magliana, Monterotondo, and Porta San Paolo: The Bloody Battles in Defense of Rome

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Mussolini - Free once more. Picture courtesy of google

On September 12th the Italian troops positioned around Campo Imperatore Hotel, current holding place of Badoglio’s number one prisoner, were shocked at the sight before them.  Nine German DFS 230 gliders and a single Luftwaffe Fieseler Fi 156 Storch STOL had swooped in out of nowhere and landed nearby. Emerging from the gliders was the highly resourceful German officer Otto Skorzeny, and his crack team of commandos.  The Italian troops quickly took up positions behind their guns to challenge the intruders, but mixed in amongst the Germans was an Italian officer, General Fernando Soleti, who had been “selected” by Skorzeny to assist his men.

Soleti ordered the Italian troops to stand down, and as they obliged the command given, Skorzeny and his men rushed past into the hotel.  The group burst into Mussolini’s room on the second floor, and the two Italian guards in the room were quickly disarmed by the German commandos.   Skorzeny stepped forward and stated “Duce, the Fuehrer has sent me to set you free!” to which Mussolini replied enthusiastically “I knew that my friend would not forsake me!”

Moments later Mussolini was ushered outside to the waiting Storch, and along with Skorzeny, boarded the plane.  The small plane, with some effort at first to stay airborne, lifted off from the mountaintop, and set a course for Vienne.  Shortly after that Mussolini was taken to a meeting to personally thank his savior, Herr Hitler.  The Duce of Fascism was once again free.

“Del senno di poi son piene le fosse.”

“Graves are filled with after-the-fact wisdom.”

After triumphing at Salerno against stiff German resistance, the Allied advance up the Italian peninsula was a long and bloody journey.  The Germans used the natural barriers that the country offered, together with a fierce determination on the defense, to hold the Allied advance at bay for several months.  The battles fought near the Rapido River and Monte Cassino would become legendary encounters for both sides.

Field Marshal Kesselring, who had won over Hitler’s trust once again by seizing Rome from the Italians and thus allowed them to hold central Italy, would lead the masterful defensive performance by the Germans.  Rommel, who had originally been pegged to lead the German forces in Italy after their link up in the north, was instead sent to the west to help prepare the “Atlantic wall” for the expected cross channel Allied invasion. It would not be until June of 1944 that Allied soldiers would “liberate” Rome following the Germans abandonment of the city. Tenacious German soldiers would in fact hold out in northern Italy to almost the very last day of the European war.

During that time, Italians continued to fight for both sides for control of Italy.  After the fall of Rome, many soldiers made their way south to reassemble with their fellow troopers to now fight on the side of the Allies.  The Italian military had been heavily beaten down after years of war, and it would take some time to rearm and reorganize the men into fighting shape.

Mussolini, thankful for his rescue but now more subordinate than ever to Hitler, would establish the Italian Social Republic (Repubblica Sociale Italiana or RSI) in the north of the country.  There would be many Italian soldiers who remained loyal to Il Duce, and would serve with his new armed forces on the side of the Axis.  A good deal of time for Mussolini’s troops would be spent not fighting the Allies, but instead attempting to hunt down Italian partisans who were constantly harassing the Germans supply and communication lines.  A sizable portion of the partisan’s core was made up of Alpine troops who had been able to outmaneuver Rommel’s forces in the north the year before, and made good their escape into the mountains.  They would over the following years, use their experience and training to inflict as much damage as they could against their German occupiers.

Hundreds of thousands of Italian soldiers who had refused to swear allegiance to the Wermacht, were forcefully shipped to Germany as enslaved labor to help keep the German war machine running.  Many of these men would parish at these work camps and factories; slaves to their one time partners.

The actions of the king and Badoglio during those critical days could be at the very least called deplorable. Some have even labeled them as criminal.  Either way, the lack of preparation or guidance on the battlefield had doomed the Italian soldier to defeat before the first shot was ever fired.  While these actions have left a dark cloud over the Italian military in the years following the War, the heart and bravery shown by the defenders of Rome truly demonstrated the spirit of Italy embodied in the soldiers and civilians who gave their lives during those hot summer days of 1943.  These men took up the call to arms, and Rome was defended with as much resistance as these brave few could provide.

References:
The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 (Volume Two of The Liberation Trilogy): Rick Atkinson
Mussolini and Fascism:  Patricia Knight
Who Defends Rome? The Forty-Five Days, July 25- September 8, 1943: Melton S. Davis
The Battle for Rome: The Germans, the Allies, the Partisans, and the Pope, September 1943-June 1944:  Robert Katz
The Oxford Companion to World War Two:  Ian Dear, Michael Richard Daniell Foot
Italian Army, 1940-1945:  Philip Jowett
Wikipedia and Britannica Articles

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Strong interest in WW2. My Father served in the Pacific with 710 Tank BTL at Anguar, Peleliu, and Philippines. Grandfather was in Italian Army shortly after WW1.

Peleliu81

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