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
The Woman Who Lived contained in a way that few Who stories do", and also praising Capaldi and Williams' performances as "compelling" while ultimately calling the episode "a crowning achievement to an already strong half-a-season". Kaite Welsh also lavished praise onto the episode, calling it "legendary" and "a seminal episode for the series". She further stated that it "should be an episode that goes down in Doctor Who history", closing her review by saying that the episode "was so good it defies letter grades" – she ultimately awarded it a perfect 'A' grade. Pearson Education will publish a novelisation of this episode by Chris