Captain Corelli's Mandolin

After German troops freed Mussolini from house arrest on September 12, 1943, the former dictator set up a Fascist Republic in Northern Italy. (Historians record it was essentially a German puppet government.) Largely discredited and in poor health, he never regained his prestige and power.

As the Allies closed in on Milan during April of 1945, Mussolini's stronghold was vulnerable. Fearing capture, he planned his escape to Switzerland. After he called his wife (Rachele Mussolini) to tell her he was leaving the country, he joined a German convoy headed for the Swiss border. With him was his long-time mistress Claretta Petacci.

Vaguely disguised with a German helmet and great coat, Mussolini drove his own vehicle. On April 27th, he was recognized by an Italian partisan in the town of Dongo, on Lake Como. They had nearly reached the border. Mussolini and Claretta were arrested and held at the Villa Manzi (today the county seat).

The next day, after a "trial," both were executed in the Lake Como town of Mezzegra. As the former head of state stood against a wall, the partisan leader read the death sentence. It is said that Walter Audisio shot the condemned man with a French MAS 7.65 after the machine gun, earmarked for the job, failed to fire.

The executions made news around the world. What happened to the bodies is infamous to this day.

Driven fifty miles south of Mezzegra, the remains of the former dictator, his mistress, and several of his henchmen were hanged by their feet in Milan's Piazza Loreto on April 29, 1945. After so many years of controlling the politics of Italy, Il Duce was finally at the mercy of the people he had brutalized.

Word of Mussolini's demise, and the public desecration of his body, reached Hitler. As the Red Army moved closer to his bunker, Hitler surveyed the damage in Berlin. He knew his situation was hopeless.

Wishing to spare himself and his own mistress, Eva Braun, from a similar fate, the Fuhrer married Eva and then had her take poison. Before he killed himself, he gave explicit instructions to his aides to completely burn their bodies. The day after crowds had gathered in the Piazza Loreto, Hitler was dead.

As the war in Europe ended, fighting in Cephalonia (and the rest of Greece) continued. The country was in the midst of civil war.