Mando

Hazardous. Captain Gerlach landed a Fieseler Storch on a strip cleared on the narrow landing zone.

Then loaded with the substantial bulk of Skorzeny and Mussolini the Storch took off. It was held by 12 men as its engine revved to a high pitch, but even then the take-off was only achieved after the Storch lurched across the mountain side and plunged headlong over the edge of a ravine.

They landed at Rome and transferred to a transport plane. Skorzeny had completed his mission - overnight he had changed from an obscure S. S. officer to a national hero.

Dr. Goebbels, the Reich Propaganda Minister, noted in his diary: "Even upon the enemy the effect of this melodramatic deliverance is enormous. . . We are able to celebrate a first-class moral victory.”

> Otto Skorzeny, photographed on his surrender in 1945. His rescue of Mussolini from the Gran Sasso and use of German troops dressed as Americans during the "Battle of the Bulge” gave him considerable notoriety with the Allies.

V  < Paratroopers race across the rocky plateau, which was later

To serve as a hazardous landing strip for the Fieseler Storch which would fly Mussolini to "freedom".

V  Skorzeny, on the extreme left, with Mussolini. With words deemed suitable for the dramatic rescue he had greeted the latter: "Duce, I have been sent by the Filhrer to set you free.”

Mussolini replied: "I knew my friend Adolf Hitler would not abandon me. I embrace my liberator. ”

< A shabby 60-year old Italian struggles into a German spotter plane. It is hard to recognise Italy’s Duce in the last months of his life.

> With Mussolini in the cramped cockpit, Skorzeny squeezes in, his 6 feet 4 inches frame further congesting the overcrowded space. Twelve then hung on to the Storch while it ran its engine up fully, and then when they let go it raced across the scree, buckled its port wheel, and only became airborne when it had plunged over a ravine.

V Kaltenbrunner watches, at the left, as Hitler greets Skorzeny at the Wolfsschanze. Earlier on the telephone Hitler had said: "Skorzeny, you are a man after my own heart. You have gained the day and crowned our mission with success. Your Filhrer thanks you!”

INFANTRY WEAPONS