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 WANFL season as of December 31, 1945, but this move proved ill-received and on March 29 the League decided to abolish age restrictions altogether, returning the WANFL to open-age competition. There was concern that the erratic availability of players who were still in the services would cause difficulties, which meant that the seconds competition, which was disbanded after 1940, was not resumed. Numerous famous players of the era – amongst them Merv McIntosh and Bernie Naylor – remained entirely unavailable due to war service, and all clubs had to make constant changes to their lineups. It was generally thought that the 1945