Benito Mussolini Mussolini was rescued from captivity in the Gran Sasso raid by German paratroopers and "Waffen-SS" commandos led by Major Otto-Harald Mors. Adolf Hitler, after meeting with the rescued former dictator, then put Mussolini in charge of a puppet regime in northern Italy, the Italian Social Republic (, RSI), informally known as the "Salò Republic". In late April 1945, in the wake of near total defeat, Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci attempted to flee to Switzerland, but both were captured by Italian communist partisans and summarily executed by firing squad on 28 April 1945 near Lake Como. His body was
Fall of the Fascist regime in Italy but he refused, since he would have found himself against his allies in the Grand Council. After that, before reaching his wife in Villa Torlonia, he telephoned his mistress, Claretta Petacci, living in her luxury villa called "La Camilluccia", on the slopes of Monte Mario. During his conversation, which was bugged, he told her in desperation: "We arrived to the epilogue, the greatest watershed in history"; "The star darkened"; "It's all over now". Afterwards, Scorza accompanied the Duce to Villa Torlonia: in the car, the dictator exclaimed: "Also Ciano, Albini, Bastianini! Scorza, do you think that good luck has abandoned