European theatre of World War II major German forces in the west were encircled and trapped in the Ruhr. On April 27, 1945, as Allied forces closed in on Milan, Mussolini was captured by Italian Partisans. He was trying to flee Italy to Switzerland and was traveling with a German anti-air battalion. On April 28, Mussolini and several of the other Fascists captured with him were taken to Dongo and executed by firing squad. The bodies were then taken to Milan and unceremoniously strung up in front of a filling station. Hitler, learning of Mussolini's death, realized that the end had finally come. He remained in
Dongo conflict civilians had fled to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo (ROC) and Dongo had become a ghost town. Further to the south, in Saba-Saba and in the Bomboma area, new fighting started on 17 November and the residents and the refugees from Dongo had to flee. The refugees included members of the Congolese navy, which patrols the Ubangi River; they had to flee with their families because they had neither weapons nor ammunition to protect themselves. More clashes occurred in the village of Buburo on 20 November. Although the inhabitants had already fled, the attackers destroyed the houses there, including