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
1945 Neutral Bay state by-election Party on 20 April 1945. His term as Liberal Leader was to prove short-lived, however. After suffering a mild heart attack in the Legislative Assembly chamber on the evening of 7 November 1945, he drove himself home and died a week later on 12 November 1945 at Hornsby Hospital. Only two candidates nominated for the by-election. They were: Ivan Black, a barrister and war veteran, for the Liberal Party and Kenneth McLeod Bolton, a merchant, standing as an Independent. A. E. Newland, the candidate of the small Services and Consumers Party of Australia, who had previously expressed interest in contesting,