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
Evacuation of civilians from the Channel Islands in 1940 lived very different lives which were hard to talk about. Those who had been evacuated were told that it was tougher in the islands. Alderney residents were not allowed to return to their island until December 1945. The islands ended the war with a debt of £9,000,000, which the UK Government hoped would be repaid. This was roughly the total value of every house in the Channel Islands and included the evacuation accounts. A generous gift from the UK government of £3,300,000 was used to recompense islanders who had suffered losses and the cost of maintaining the evacuees, estimated at