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Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (Italian: [beˈniːto mussoˈliːni];[1] 29 July 1883 – 28 April 1945) was Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Italy from the fascists' takeover of state power in 1922 until 1943, and Duce from 1919 to his execution in 1945 during the Italian civil war. As dictator of Italy and founder of fascism, Mussolini inspired several totalitarian rulers such as Adolf Hitler.[2][3][4]
A journalist and politician, Mussolini had been a leading member of the National Directorate of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) from 1910 to 1914,[5] but was expelled from the PSI for advocating military intervention in World War I, in opposition to the party's stance on neutrality. Mussolini served in the Royal Italian Army during the war until he was wounded and discharged in 1917. Mussolini denounced the PSI, his views now centering on nationalism instead of socialism and later founded the fascist movement which came to oppose egalitarianism[6] and class conflict, instead advocating "revolutionary nationalism" transcending class lines.[7] Following the March on Rome in October 1922, Mussolini became the youngest Prime Minister in Italian history until the appointment of Matteo Renzi in February 2014. After removing all political opposition through his secret police and outlawing labor strikes,[8] Mussolini and his followers consolidated their power through a series of laws that transformed the nation into a one-party dictatorship. Within five years, Mussolini had established dictatorial authority by both legal and extraordinary means and aspired to create a totalitarian state. In 1929, Mussolini signed the Lateran Treaty with the Vatican, ending decades of struggle between the Italian state and the Papacy, and recognized the independence of Vatican City.
Mussolini's foreign policy aimed to expand the sphere of influence of Italian fascism. In 1923, he began the "Pacification of Libya" and ordered the bombing of Corfu in retaliation for the murder of an Italian general. In 1936, Mussolini formed Italian East Africa (AOI) by merging Eritrea, Somalia and Ethiopia following the Abyssinian crisis and the Second Italo–Ethiopian War. In 1939, Italian forces occupied Albania. Between 1936 and 1939, Mussolini ordered the successful Italian military intervention in Spain in favor of Francisco Franco during the Spanish civil war. At the same time, Mussolini's Italy tried to avoid the outbreak of a second global war and took part in the Stresa front, the Lytton Report, the Treaty of Lausanne, the Four-Power Pact and the Munich Agreement. However, Italy distanced Britain and France by forming the axis powers with Germany and Japan. Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, resulting in declarations of war by France and the UK and the start of World War II.
On 10 June 1940—with the Fall of France imminent—Italy officially entered the war and occupied parts of south-east France, Corsica and Tunisia. Mussolini planned to concentrate Italian forces on a major offensive against the British Empire in Africa and the Middle East, while expecting the collapse of the UK in the European theatre. The Italians invaded Egypt, bombed Mandatory Palestine, and occupied British Somaliland with initial success. However, the British government refused to accept proposals for a peace that would involve accepting Axis victories in Eastern and Western Europe; plans for an invasion of the UK did not proceed and the war continued. In October 1940, Mussolini sent Italian forces into Greece, starting the Greco-Italian War. The British air force prevented the Italian invasion and allowed the Greeks to push the Italians back to Albania.[9]
The Balkan campaign was significantly prolonged until the definition of the Axis occupation of Greece and Yugoslavia. Furthermore, the German invasion of the Soviet Union and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour forced Mussolini to send an Italian army in Russia and declare war on the United States.[10] Mussolini was aware that Italy, whose resources were reduced by the campaigns of the 1930s, was not ready for a long conflict against three superpowers but opted to remain in the conflict to not abandon the fascist imperial ambitions.[11] In 1943, Italy suffered major disasters: by February the Red Army had completely destroyed the Italian Army in Russia; in May the Axis collapsed in North Africa despite previous Italian resistance at the second battle of El Alamein. On 9 July the Anglo-Americans invaded Sicily; and by the 16th it became clear the German summer offensive in the USSR had failed. As a consequence, early on 25 July, the Grand Council of Fascism passed a motion of no confidence for Mussolini; later that day the King dismissed him as head of government and had him placed in custody, appointing Pietro Badoglio to succeed him as Prime Minister.
After the king agreed the armistice with the allies, on 12 September 1943 Mussolini was rescued from captivity in the Gran Sasso raid by German paratroopers and Waffen-SS commandos led by Major Otto-Harald Mors. Adolf Hitler, after meeting with the rescued former dictator, then put Mussolini in charge of a puppet regime in northern Italy, the Italian Social Republic (Italian: Repubblica Sociale Italiana, RSI),[12] informally known as the Salò Republic. In late April 1945, in the wake of near total defeat, Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci attempted to flee to Switzerland,[13] but both were captured by Italian communist partisans and summarily executed by firing squad on 28 April 1945 near Lake Como. His body was then taken to Milan, where it was hung upside down at a service station to publicly confirm his demise.[14]
A journalist and politician, Mussolini had been a leading member of the National Directorate of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) from 1910 to 1914,[5] but was expelled from the PSI for advocating military intervention in World War I, in opposition to the party's stance on neutrality. Mussolini served in the Royal Italian Army during the war until he was wounded and discharged in 1917. Mussolini denounced the PSI, his views now centering on nationalism instead of socialism and later founded the fascist movement which came to oppose egalitarianism[6] and class conflict, instead advocating "revolutionary nationalism" transcending class lines.[7] Following the March on Rome in October 1922, Mussolini became the youngest Prime Minister in Italian history until the appointment of Matteo Renzi in February 2014. After removing all political opposition through his secret police and outlawing labor strikes,[8] Mussolini and his followers consolidated their power through a series of laws that transformed the nation into a one-party dictatorship. Within five years, Mussolini had established dictatorial authority by both legal and extraordinary means and aspired to create a totalitarian state. In 1929, Mussolini signed the Lateran Treaty with the Vatican, ending decades of struggle between the Italian state and the Papacy, and recognized the independence of Vatican City.
Mussolini's foreign policy aimed to expand the sphere of influence of Italian fascism. In 1923, he began the "Pacification of Libya" and ordered the bombing of Corfu in retaliation for the murder of an Italian general. In 1936, Mussolini formed Italian East Africa (AOI) by merging Eritrea, Somalia and Ethiopia following the Abyssinian crisis and the Second Italo–Ethiopian War. In 1939, Italian forces occupied Albania. Between 1936 and 1939, Mussolini ordered the successful Italian military intervention in Spain in favor of Francisco Franco during the Spanish civil war. At the same time, Mussolini's Italy tried to avoid the outbreak of a second global war and took part in the Stresa front, the Lytton Report, the Treaty of Lausanne, the Four-Power Pact and the Munich Agreement. However, Italy distanced Britain and France by forming the axis powers with Germany and Japan. Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, resulting in declarations of war by France and the UK and the start of World War II.
On 10 June 1940—with the Fall of France imminent—Italy officially entered the war and occupied parts of south-east France, Corsica and Tunisia. Mussolini planned to concentrate Italian forces on a major offensive against the British Empire in Africa and the Middle East, while expecting the collapse of the UK in the European theatre. The Italians invaded Egypt, bombed Mandatory Palestine, and occupied British Somaliland with initial success. However, the British government refused to accept proposals for a peace that would involve accepting Axis victories in Eastern and Western Europe; plans for an invasion of the UK did not proceed and the war continued. In October 1940, Mussolini sent Italian forces into Greece, starting the Greco-Italian War. The British air force prevented the Italian invasion and allowed the Greeks to push the Italians back to Albania.[9]
The Balkan campaign was significantly prolonged until the definition of the Axis occupation of Greece and Yugoslavia. Furthermore, the German invasion of the Soviet Union and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour forced Mussolini to send an Italian army in Russia and declare war on the United States.[10] Mussolini was aware that Italy, whose resources were reduced by the campaigns of the 1930s, was not ready for a long conflict against three superpowers but opted to remain in the conflict to not abandon the fascist imperial ambitions.[11] In 1943, Italy suffered major disasters: by February the Red Army had completely destroyed the Italian Army in Russia; in May the Axis collapsed in North Africa despite previous Italian resistance at the second battle of El Alamein. On 9 July the Anglo-Americans invaded Sicily; and by the 16th it became clear the German summer offensive in the USSR had failed. As a consequence, early on 25 July, the Grand Council of Fascism passed a motion of no confidence for Mussolini; later that day the King dismissed him as head of government and had him placed in custody, appointing Pietro Badoglio to succeed him as Prime Minister.
After the king agreed the armistice with the allies, on 12 September 1943 Mussolini was rescued from captivity in the Gran Sasso raid by German paratroopers and Waffen-SS commandos led by Major Otto-Harald Mors. Adolf Hitler, after meeting with the rescued former dictator, then put Mussolini in charge of a puppet regime in northern Italy, the Italian Social Republic (Italian: Repubblica Sociale Italiana, RSI),[12] informally known as the Salò Republic. In late April 1945, in the wake of near total defeat, Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci attempted to flee to Switzerland,[13] but both were captured by Italian communist partisans and summarily executed by firing squad on 28 April 1945 near Lake Como. His body was then taken to Milan, where it was hung upside down at a service station to publicly confirm his demise.[14]
Benito Mussolini - Wikipedia
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This film dating from 1989 was part of the acclaimed 'Road to War' series written by Charles Wheeler and Richard Overy. It is uploaded here as a companion pi...
Thank you my friend Maj Marty Hogan for making us aware that July 29 is the anniversary of the birth of Italian politician and journalist who was the leader of the National Fascist Party Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini who was the leader of the National Fascist Party (Partito Nazionale Fascista, PNF).
Images:
1. Benito Mussolini in Black Shirt uniform.
2. Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini meeting in Rome in May 1937
3. Hitler and Mussolini in 1940
4. Benito Mussolini dead April 28, 1945
1. Background from robinsonlibrary.com/history/italy/medieval/1871/mussolini.htm
"Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was born in Dovia di Predappio, Italy, on July 29, 1883. His father Alessandro was a blacksmith with Socialist leanings; his mother Rosa was a Catholic schoolmistress. The family eventually included another son (Arnaldo) and one daughter Edvige).
At the age of 14, after completing his basic education in Predappio, Mussolini was sent to a boarding school run by Salesian monks in Faenza. Expelled by the monks for bad conduct, he entered a normal school at Forlì, from which he earned a teaching certificate in 1901. He subsequently became an elementary teacher, but he did not enjoy the work and left after about a year.
Socialist
In June 1902, Mussolini moved to Switzerland, where he earned a living as a bricklayer. He also became active in the Socialist movement, working for its local newspaper, organizing meetings, giving speeches to workers, and serving as secretary of the Italian workers' union in Lausanne. In 1903, he was arrested and deported to Italy for advocating a general strike, but he snuck back into Switzerland rather than report for mandatory military service in Italy. Arrested for falsifying his papers in 1904, he was once again deported to Italy. This time he chose to perform his military service, which was completed in 1907, after which he returned to teaching.
In February 1909, Mussolini moved to Trent, Austria (now Trento, Italy), where he became the secretary of the local labor party. He also became editor of the local Socialist newspaper and wrote several literary works. Expelled from Trent later that year for publicly supporting Italian claims to the city, he went first to Milan and then, in 1910, became the editor of a Socialist newspaper in Forlì. In that same year he married Rachele Guidi, who bore him five children.
By 1911 Mussolini was one of the most prominent Socialists in Italy. In September of that year he led demonstrations against an Italian attack on Tripoli, Libya, for which he was arrested and imprisoned for five months. In April of 1912, he became editor of Avanti, the leading Socialist newspaper in Italy. Under his leadership the paper's circulation rose from 20,000 to 100,000. In 1913 he published Giovanni Hus, il veridico (Jan Hus, true prophet), an historical and political biography about the life and mission of the Czech ecclesiastic reformer Jan Hus, and his militant followers, the Hussites.
The Italian Socialist Party supported World War I when it first began, but renounced that support after a number of anti-war protestors were killed. Mussolini believed that Italy should enter the war against Germany, however, and, on November 25, 1914, he was expelled from the Socialist Party for repeatedly advocating that position. He immediately founded his own newspaper, Il Popolo d'Italia, in which he published violent editorials aimed at driving Italy into the war. When Italy finally did enter the war, he enlisted in the army and became a Corporal, and served in the trenches from September 1915 until being wounded in February 1917.
Rise to Power
On March 23, 1919, Mussolini and a group of discontented war veterans created the Fasci Italiani di Combattimento (Italian Combat Squad), in Milan. The nationalistic, antiliberal, and antisocialist Fascist movement easily attracted support from the lower middle-class. Spreading out into the countryside, the movement also attracted support from landowners. Those who did not support the Fascist movement were often "bullied" by armed squads known as Black Shirts. By 1922 the Fascists had become so powerful that, on October 28, King Victor Emmanuel III was forced to call on Mussolini to head the government.
As Prime Minister, the first years of Mussolini's rule were characterized by a right-wing coalition government composed of Fascists, nationalists, liberals, and two Catholic clerics from the Popular Party. By 1925 he had transformed Italy into a single-party, totalitarian regime, with himself as Il Duce (dictator). Under Fascism, employers and workers were organized into party-controlled groups representing different sectors of the country. Although the system preserved capitalism and expanded social services, it also abolished free trade unions and the right to strike. Mussolini also instituted a system of industrial holding companies financed by the state.
Although Mussolini never embraced Catholicism and had even outlawed Roman Catholic youth organizations, he ended a half-century of friction between the Church and the State by signing an agreement with Pope Pius XI that gave the Pope temporal powers within Vatican City (the Lateran Pacts, 1929).
Believing that Italy should reclaim the glory of the Roman Empire, Mussolini adopted an aggressive foreign policy. His securing of Italian colonies in Libya and Somalia won him popularity, but his brutal invasion of Ethiopia in 1935-36 brought condemnation from the League of Nations. His popular support began waning after he sent military forces to assist Spanish rebel leader General Francisco Franco (1936-39), allied Italy with Nazi Germany, enacted anti-Jewish laws, and invaded Albania (1939).
World War II
Mussolini's aggressive foreign policy left Italy militarily unprepared to fight alongside Adolf Hitler, so after war was declared in September 1939 Mussolini declared that his country was a non-belligerent. It wasn't until June 1940, after Germany had conquered most of France, that he officially joined the Axis Powers, by invading southern France. Italian troops fought the British in Africa and alongside German troops in Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union, but were defeated in almost every battle they fought.
After Italy's many military defeats, King Victor Emmanuel dismissed Mussolini on July 25, 1943, and in September signed an armistice with the Allies. Initially imprisoned by his own Fascist Grand Council, Mussolini was rescued by German paratroopers in September and made head of a puppet government in northern Italy. After German forces in northern Italy collapsed in the spring of 1945, Mussolini attempted to flee to Switzerland with his mistress Clara Petacci. The two were captured and killed by the Italian underground at Guilino di Mezzegra near Lake Como on April 28, 1945.
Post-Script
After Mussolini’s corpse was hung up on meat hooks on April 29, 1945, in Piazzale Loreto in Milan, where citizens vented their fury at their former leader, he was buried in an unmarked grave in a nearby cemetery. A year later, neo-Fascist loyalists dug up his body and hid it in a convent in Lombardy until 1957, when the remains were returned to Mussolini’s widow, who on September 1 buried them in the family crypt in Predappio."
2. Background from bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/mussolini_benito.shtml
"Mussolini was the founder of Fascism and leader of Italy from 1922 to 1943. He allied Italy with Nazi Germany and Japan in World War Two.
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was born on 29 July 1883 in Predappio in northern central Italy. His father was a blacksmith. Employment prospects in the area were poor so in 1902 Mussolini moved to Switzerland, where he became involved in socialist politics. He returned to Italy in 1904, and worked as a journalist in the socialist press, but his support for Italy's entry into World War One led to his break with socialism. He was drafted into the Italian army in September 1915.
In March 1919, Mussolini formed the Fascist Party, galvanising the support of many unemployed war veterans. He organised them into armed squads known as Black Shirts, who terrorised their political opponents. In 1921, the Fascist Party was invited to join the coalition government.
By October 1922, Italy seemed to be slipping into political chaos. The Black Shirts marched on Rome and Mussolini presented himself as the only man capable of restoring order. King Victor Emmanuel invited Mussolini to form a government. Mussolini gradually dismantled the institutions of democratic government and in 1925 made himself dictator, taking the title 'Il Duce'. He set about attempting to re-establish Italy as a great European power. The regime was held together by strong state control and Mussolini's cult of personality.
In 1935, Mussolini invaded Abyssinia (now Ethiopia) and incorporated it into his new Italian Empire. He provided military support to Franco in the Spanish Civil War. Increasing co-operation with Nazi Germany culminated in the 1939 Pact of Steel. Influenced by Hitler, Mussolini began to introduce anti-Jewish legislation in Italy. His declaration of war on Britain and France in June 1940 exposed Italian military weakness and was followed by a series of defeats in North and East Africa and the Balkans.
In July 1943, Allied troops landed in Sicily. Mussolini was overthrown and imprisoned by his former colleagues in the Fascist government. In September, Italy signed an armistice with the Allies. The German army began the occupation of Italy and Mussolini was rescued by German commandos. He was installed as the leader of a new government, but had little power. As the Allies advanced northwards through Italy, Mussolini fled towards Switzerland. He was captured by Italian partisans and shot on 28 April 1945."
Italy and the road to war
"This film dating from 1989 was part of the acclaimed 'Road to War' series written by Charles Wheeler and Richard Overy."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8xCkNDad1I
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen Lt Col Charlie Brown LTC Greg Henning LTC Jeff Shearer Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Maj William W. 'Bill' Price CPT Scott Sharon CWO3 Dennis M. SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL SSG William Jones SGT (Join to see) SGT John " Mac " McConnell SP5 Mark Kuzinski PO1 H Gene Lawrence PO2 Kevin Parker PO3 Bob McCord
Images:
1. Benito Mussolini in Black Shirt uniform.
2. Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini meeting in Rome in May 1937
3. Hitler and Mussolini in 1940
4. Benito Mussolini dead April 28, 1945
1. Background from robinsonlibrary.com/history/italy/medieval/1871/mussolini.htm
"Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was born in Dovia di Predappio, Italy, on July 29, 1883. His father Alessandro was a blacksmith with Socialist leanings; his mother Rosa was a Catholic schoolmistress. The family eventually included another son (Arnaldo) and one daughter Edvige).
At the age of 14, after completing his basic education in Predappio, Mussolini was sent to a boarding school run by Salesian monks in Faenza. Expelled by the monks for bad conduct, he entered a normal school at Forlì, from which he earned a teaching certificate in 1901. He subsequently became an elementary teacher, but he did not enjoy the work and left after about a year.
Socialist
In June 1902, Mussolini moved to Switzerland, where he earned a living as a bricklayer. He also became active in the Socialist movement, working for its local newspaper, organizing meetings, giving speeches to workers, and serving as secretary of the Italian workers' union in Lausanne. In 1903, he was arrested and deported to Italy for advocating a general strike, but he snuck back into Switzerland rather than report for mandatory military service in Italy. Arrested for falsifying his papers in 1904, he was once again deported to Italy. This time he chose to perform his military service, which was completed in 1907, after which he returned to teaching.
In February 1909, Mussolini moved to Trent, Austria (now Trento, Italy), where he became the secretary of the local labor party. He also became editor of the local Socialist newspaper and wrote several literary works. Expelled from Trent later that year for publicly supporting Italian claims to the city, he went first to Milan and then, in 1910, became the editor of a Socialist newspaper in Forlì. In that same year he married Rachele Guidi, who bore him five children.
By 1911 Mussolini was one of the most prominent Socialists in Italy. In September of that year he led demonstrations against an Italian attack on Tripoli, Libya, for which he was arrested and imprisoned for five months. In April of 1912, he became editor of Avanti, the leading Socialist newspaper in Italy. Under his leadership the paper's circulation rose from 20,000 to 100,000. In 1913 he published Giovanni Hus, il veridico (Jan Hus, true prophet), an historical and political biography about the life and mission of the Czech ecclesiastic reformer Jan Hus, and his militant followers, the Hussites.
The Italian Socialist Party supported World War I when it first began, but renounced that support after a number of anti-war protestors were killed. Mussolini believed that Italy should enter the war against Germany, however, and, on November 25, 1914, he was expelled from the Socialist Party for repeatedly advocating that position. He immediately founded his own newspaper, Il Popolo d'Italia, in which he published violent editorials aimed at driving Italy into the war. When Italy finally did enter the war, he enlisted in the army and became a Corporal, and served in the trenches from September 1915 until being wounded in February 1917.
Rise to Power
On March 23, 1919, Mussolini and a group of discontented war veterans created the Fasci Italiani di Combattimento (Italian Combat Squad), in Milan. The nationalistic, antiliberal, and antisocialist Fascist movement easily attracted support from the lower middle-class. Spreading out into the countryside, the movement also attracted support from landowners. Those who did not support the Fascist movement were often "bullied" by armed squads known as Black Shirts. By 1922 the Fascists had become so powerful that, on October 28, King Victor Emmanuel III was forced to call on Mussolini to head the government.
As Prime Minister, the first years of Mussolini's rule were characterized by a right-wing coalition government composed of Fascists, nationalists, liberals, and two Catholic clerics from the Popular Party. By 1925 he had transformed Italy into a single-party, totalitarian regime, with himself as Il Duce (dictator). Under Fascism, employers and workers were organized into party-controlled groups representing different sectors of the country. Although the system preserved capitalism and expanded social services, it also abolished free trade unions and the right to strike. Mussolini also instituted a system of industrial holding companies financed by the state.
Although Mussolini never embraced Catholicism and had even outlawed Roman Catholic youth organizations, he ended a half-century of friction between the Church and the State by signing an agreement with Pope Pius XI that gave the Pope temporal powers within Vatican City (the Lateran Pacts, 1929).
Believing that Italy should reclaim the glory of the Roman Empire, Mussolini adopted an aggressive foreign policy. His securing of Italian colonies in Libya and Somalia won him popularity, but his brutal invasion of Ethiopia in 1935-36 brought condemnation from the League of Nations. His popular support began waning after he sent military forces to assist Spanish rebel leader General Francisco Franco (1936-39), allied Italy with Nazi Germany, enacted anti-Jewish laws, and invaded Albania (1939).
World War II
Mussolini's aggressive foreign policy left Italy militarily unprepared to fight alongside Adolf Hitler, so after war was declared in September 1939 Mussolini declared that his country was a non-belligerent. It wasn't until June 1940, after Germany had conquered most of France, that he officially joined the Axis Powers, by invading southern France. Italian troops fought the British in Africa and alongside German troops in Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union, but were defeated in almost every battle they fought.
After Italy's many military defeats, King Victor Emmanuel dismissed Mussolini on July 25, 1943, and in September signed an armistice with the Allies. Initially imprisoned by his own Fascist Grand Council, Mussolini was rescued by German paratroopers in September and made head of a puppet government in northern Italy. After German forces in northern Italy collapsed in the spring of 1945, Mussolini attempted to flee to Switzerland with his mistress Clara Petacci. The two were captured and killed by the Italian underground at Guilino di Mezzegra near Lake Como on April 28, 1945.
Post-Script
After Mussolini’s corpse was hung up on meat hooks on April 29, 1945, in Piazzale Loreto in Milan, where citizens vented their fury at their former leader, he was buried in an unmarked grave in a nearby cemetery. A year later, neo-Fascist loyalists dug up his body and hid it in a convent in Lombardy until 1957, when the remains were returned to Mussolini’s widow, who on September 1 buried them in the family crypt in Predappio."
2. Background from bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/mussolini_benito.shtml
"Mussolini was the founder of Fascism and leader of Italy from 1922 to 1943. He allied Italy with Nazi Germany and Japan in World War Two.
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was born on 29 July 1883 in Predappio in northern central Italy. His father was a blacksmith. Employment prospects in the area were poor so in 1902 Mussolini moved to Switzerland, where he became involved in socialist politics. He returned to Italy in 1904, and worked as a journalist in the socialist press, but his support for Italy's entry into World War One led to his break with socialism. He was drafted into the Italian army in September 1915.
In March 1919, Mussolini formed the Fascist Party, galvanising the support of many unemployed war veterans. He organised them into armed squads known as Black Shirts, who terrorised their political opponents. In 1921, the Fascist Party was invited to join the coalition government.
By October 1922, Italy seemed to be slipping into political chaos. The Black Shirts marched on Rome and Mussolini presented himself as the only man capable of restoring order. King Victor Emmanuel invited Mussolini to form a government. Mussolini gradually dismantled the institutions of democratic government and in 1925 made himself dictator, taking the title 'Il Duce'. He set about attempting to re-establish Italy as a great European power. The regime was held together by strong state control and Mussolini's cult of personality.
In 1935, Mussolini invaded Abyssinia (now Ethiopia) and incorporated it into his new Italian Empire. He provided military support to Franco in the Spanish Civil War. Increasing co-operation with Nazi Germany culminated in the 1939 Pact of Steel. Influenced by Hitler, Mussolini began to introduce anti-Jewish legislation in Italy. His declaration of war on Britain and France in June 1940 exposed Italian military weakness and was followed by a series of defeats in North and East Africa and the Balkans.
In July 1943, Allied troops landed in Sicily. Mussolini was overthrown and imprisoned by his former colleagues in the Fascist government. In September, Italy signed an armistice with the Allies. The German army began the occupation of Italy and Mussolini was rescued by German commandos. He was installed as the leader of a new government, but had little power. As the Allies advanced northwards through Italy, Mussolini fled towards Switzerland. He was captured by Italian partisans and shot on 28 April 1945."
Italy and the road to war
"This film dating from 1989 was part of the acclaimed 'Road to War' series written by Charles Wheeler and Richard Overy."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8xCkNDad1I
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen Lt Col Charlie Brown LTC Greg Henning LTC Jeff Shearer Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Maj William W. 'Bill' Price CPT Scott Sharon CWO3 Dennis M. SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL SSG William Jones SGT (Join to see) SGT John " Mac " McConnell SP5 Mark Kuzinski PO1 H Gene Lawrence PO2 Kevin Parker PO3 Bob McCord
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