World War II
On July 9, 1943, affected by the earlier Soviet victories, the Western Allies landed on Sicily, which resulted in the arrest of Mussolini in the same month. In September 1943, the Allies invaded mainland Italy, following the Italian armistice with the Allies. Germany then took control of Italy, disarmed its army, and built many defensive lines to slow the Allied invasion. German special forces rescued Mussolini and created the German-occupied puppet state of the Italian Social Republic.