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The Gran Sasso raid refers to Operation ''Eiche'' (German for "Oak"), the rescue of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini by German paratroopers led by Major Otto-Harald Mors and ''Waffen-SS'' commandos in September 1943, during World War II. The airborne operation was personally ordered by Adolf Hitler, planned by Harald Mors, and approved by General Kurt Student. ==Overview== On the night between 24 and 25 July 1943, a few weeks after the Allied invasion of Sicily and bombing of Rome, the Italian Grand Council of Fascism voted a motion of no confidence (''Ordine del Giorno'' Grandi) against Mussolini. On the same day, the king replaced him with Marshal Pietro Badoglio and had him arrested. Mussolini was being transported around Italy by his captors (first to Ponza, then to La Maddalena, both small islands in the Tyrrhenian sea), while Hauptsturmführer (SS captain) Otto Skorzeny—selected personally by Hitler and Ernst Kaltenbrunner to carry out the mission—was tracking him. Intercepting a coded Italian radio message, Skorzeny used the reconnaissance provided by the agents and informants of ''SS-Obersturmbannführer'' Herbert Kappler to determine that Mussolini was being imprisoned at Campo Imperatore Hotel, a ski resort at Campo Imperatore in Italy's Gran Sasso massif, high in the Apennine Mountains. On 12 September 1943, Skorzeny's 26 SS troopers joined the team of 82 ''Fallschirmjäger'' to rescue Mussolini in a high-risk glider mission. The commandos landed their dozen DFS 230 gliders on the mountain; only one crashed, causing minor injuries. The ''Fallschirmjäger'' and Skorzeny's special troopers then overwhelmed Mussolini's captors (200 well-equipped ''Carabinieri'' guards) without a single shot being fired; this was also due to the fact that General Fernando Soleti of Polizia, who flew in with Skorzeny, told them to stand down or be executed for treason. Skorzeny attacked the radio operator and his equipment, then he formally greeted Mussolini with "Duce, the Führer has sent me to set you free!", to which Mussolini replied "I knew that my friend would not forsake me!" Mussolini was first flown from Campo Imperatore in a Luftwaffe Fieseler Fi 156C-3/Trop ''Storch'' STOL liaison aircraft, ''Werknummer'' (serial number) 1268, initially flown in by ''Hauptmann'' Heinrich Gerlach (1912—1993),〔Mussolini was first flown by Captain Heinrich Gerlach from Campo Imperatore in a Luftwaffe Fieseler Fi 156 Storch liaison aircraft, then flown on to Vienna (where he stayed overnight at the Hotel Imperial) and given a hero's welcome.〕 then taking off with Mussolini and Skorzeny (even though the weight of an extra passenger almost caused the tiny plane to crash) to the military airport of Pratica di Mare (near Rome) then embarked in an Heinkel He 111 on to Vienna, where Mussolini stayed overnight at the Hotel Imperial and was given a hero's welcome. The ''Storch'' involved in rescuing Mussolini bore the radio code letters, or ''Stammkennzeichen'', of "SJ + LL" in motion picture coverage of the rescue. The operation on the ground at Campo Imperatore was in fact led by First Lieutenant Baron Georg Freiherr von Berlepsch, commanded by Major Otto-Harald Mors and under orders from General Kurt Student, all ''Fallschirmjäger'' (German air force paratroop) officers; but Skorzeny stewarded the Italian leader first into Rome and eventually into Berlin, right in front of the cameras. . After a pro-SS propaganda coup at the behest of ''SS Reichsfuhrer'' Heinrich Himmler and propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, Skorzeny and his Special Forces (''SS-Sonderverband z. b. V. "Friedenthal"'') of the ''Waffen-SS'' were granted the majority of the credit for the operation. The ''Friedenthaler'' of the'' SS-Reichssicherheitshauptamt ''were for the ''Waffen-SS'' what the Brandenburgers were for the ''Wehrmacht'' and ''Abwehr''. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Gran Sasso raid」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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