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Repubblica Sociale Italiana or Salò Republic As the events of 1943 unfolded, proving ever more disastrous for Italy with the defeat in Russia, the collapse of the North African front, and an Allied invasion of mainland Italy immiment, the Grand Council of Fascism passed a vote of no confidence against Mussolini and turned military authority over to King Victor Emmanuel III. The Crown had been in secret negotiations with the Allies in the summer of 1943, looking to reach a compromise and avoid catastrophe. After the vote of the Grand Council, the King ordered Mussolini to be arrested, risking a Fascist coup in the process. On September 8, Italy signed an armistice with Dwight Eisenhower and Marshal Pietro Badoglio was named Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Italy and supreme Italian military commander. Italian units were ordered to stand down, presumably neutral. The Germans has suspected that Italy would seek a peace with the Allies and quickly occupied Italy, disarming and rounding up confused and unorganized Italian army units throughout the penninsula and in the Balkans. Some 600,000 Italian soldiers, many of whom had courageously served alongside their German allies, were sent to detention camps in Germany to rot. Less fortunate units such as the Acqui Division were massacred when they fought against the Germans in a brutal stand at Cephalonia. On September 12, 1943, Mussolini was reluctantly "rescued" by a daring glider operation led by Colonel Otto Skorzeny which liberated the Duce and brought him to Hitler. For the first time, Mussolini had nothing whatsoever to offer to Hitler and was forced to accept the largely symbolic position as head of state of a new Fascist puppet state--the Repubblica Sociale Italiana. One of the first acts of state was the execution of those Fascists who had voted in favor of No Confidence against Mussolini in the summer of 1943. Among those executed included former Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano, the Duce's own son-in-law, at Hitler's vehement urging. The RSI was made to cede large portions of Italian territory to the Third Reich and was completely dominated by the German state apparatus. Partisan warfare erupted throughout the countryside and resistance within the Italian cities resulted in atrocity after atrocity on both sides. German crimes and reprisals against the Italian population, the ongoing Allied attacks, partisan warfare, counter-partisan operations by Fascist Republican forces, and internal discontent devastated Italy and saturated the land in violence. Mussolini wrote repeatedly in vain to Hitler to grant him greater autonomy and to cease German brutality against Italians. His words, every one of which was monitored by German agents, fell on deaf ears. The RSI effectively came to an end in April of 1945 as the Allied advance destroyed the last major Axis formations and were steadily moving northward. Mussolini was captured by partisans along with his mistress, Claretta Petacci, and several high ranking Fascists, while trying to escape. The following day, April 28th, Petacci and Mussolini were shot by the Communists and their bodies were strung up upside-down and pulverized by a mob at a gas station. So ended Fascism in Italy.
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