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FABIO TONCELLI

ByFABIO TONCELLIHistorical consultation byMARCO PATRICELLI

SD CinematograficaLungotevere delle Navi, 19 - 00196 RomaTel. +39-063215114 - Fax +39-06 64520220 www.sdcinematografica.it

For the first time, unpublished documentsand photos reveal the secret of the mostdaring exploit of all time carried outby special forces: Operation Oak,the liberation of the Duce,Benito Mussolini.The version of the blitz told by its hero,the SS Captain Otto Skorzeny,has continued to fascinate the generalpublic in books and documentaries upto the present day. But it has one defect:it is completely false.Why do some people still defend it? What is behind it?And most of all: who really freed the Duce?

RUNNING TIME___________________ 52 minutiFORMAT _________________________ HD CAM

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We are at an altitude of more then2,000 meters, in the heart of the moun-tains of Central Italy, in the Abruzzo re-gion, not far from the snow-coveredpeak of the Gran Sasso.A large building in stone with simplesevere lines is covered in fog andclouds. It inspires respect, almost fear.The period in which we find ourselvesis difficult to establish. In fact, every-thing has remained just the way it waswhen the building was constructed in1937 to welcome the future tourists ofthe highest ski resort in Europe, as de-sired by fascism. We enter room 202:the furniture, the same as in 1943, wasrecently found in a high school in thevalley. There is the same bed, the samedesk,and the same chair. Only now canwe see what the room where the Ducewas kept prisoner looked like. Onlynow are we able to reconstruct the 23hours that passed from the momentwhen Major Harald Moors of the para-troopers was ordered in absolute se-crecy by General Student to freeMussolini, an order that Student hadreceived directly from Hitler, until thefirst German glider full of specialtroops tried to land in a dangerouslysmall plot of land and rocks in front ofthe hotel that was guarded by threehundred fully-armed Italian militaryguards.Testimonies, memories, filmedmaterial, unpublished photo-graphs, and documents carefullyhidden in the Italian archives de-molish piece by piece the official naziversion and make it possible for thefirst time to recount the incrediblechain of events that had a strong effecton public opinion throughout theworld during World War II and stillconceals many obscure aspects.From July 25, 1943, the day on whichthe Duce was deposed by a conspiracywithin the regime and arrested, therebegan a ruthless struggle between theItalian, German and Anglo-Americansecret services to hide or discoverwhere the Duce really was. Now weare finally able to reconstruct them: aCarabiniere barracks in Rome, the is-land of Ponza, the island of theMaddalena in Sardinia, a farm house inAbruzzo and finally a hotel in Campo

Imperatore at an altitude of more than2,000 feet. In the first three places, theGermans arrived just after the prison-er had been taken away. But the racecontinued. Everyone was aware of theimportance for the outcome of thewar of possessing Mussolini.September 12, 1943: the fascist regimein Italy had fallen a month ago.Mussolini was a secret prisoner in animpregnable building in the heart ofthe mountains of Central Italy, mostlikely waiting to be consigned to theAnglo-American forces. The post-fas-cist government of Field MarshalBadoglio thought the hotel in CampoImperatore was the most secureprison in the world. And it had goodreason to think that. Nonetheless, af-ter an attack of just 14 minutes, he wasfreed. It was 14 minutes of pure mili-tary boldness, which we will reliveminute by minute,with German reper-tory films, re-enactments and graphicreconstructions, in order to discoverthe incredible truth.How did the Germans discover the prisonof the Duce?Did the ferocious battle in the field, withenormous losses, as described by the reck-less SS Captain Otto Skorzeny really takeplace?Or is it true that not one shot was fired?Why did the guards not kill Mussolinirather than hand him over to theGermans, as they were instructed?Did the Italian government, which had justpassed over to the allies, really want tohand the prisoner over to the Americans?Who was the real hero in the liberation ofthe Duce?What did Hitler and Mussolini say as theyshook hands only a few hours after theblitz?Why did Himmler and the nazi propagan-da machine sustain a version of the liber-ation that has now been shown to be com-pletely false?Who is still alive who can confirm howthings really went?The answer to these questions ismore adventurous, compelling andsurprising than a novel. But it is theonly true answer.

General Kurt Student and the soldiers of the Operation Oak

Mussolini and Harald Mors at Campo Imperatore

The captainof SS OttoSkorzeny

The planeready to take off

with on board Mussolini and Skorzeny