Posted: 12/23/2012 6:29:10 PM EDT
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On the morning of 27 April 1945 Umberto (nom de guerre "Partisan Bill") a Partisan of the 52nd Garibaldi Brigade (Communists) was checking lorries at Dongo on Lake Como carrying retreating German Troops to the Swiss border. He became suspicious of a man in the fifth truck. His unit had been warned that Mussolini was attempting to flee the country.
There was an agreement with the Partisans the convoy would be given safe passage providing no Italians were being concealed among the retreating German soldiers. A German soldier explained the man was a drunken colleague, but Lazzaro remained unconvinced. Lazzaro called out to the man, who twice ignored his shouts. Climbing into the truck he went up to the man and said "Cavaliere Benito Mussolini"—the man's reaction was a physical jolt. The man was Benito Mussolini (Il Duce). The political commissar of the unit was called in—the official partisan version of events thereafter is the decision to have Mussolini executed was taken by a small group including the leaders of the three main 'branches' of the Resistance. ( From Wiki on the Italian Resistance.) |