Chapter eight: The Duce is Dead, Long Life the Duce!
The annexation of Austria by Germany had an unexpected consequence: the reapprochement of France and Italy. De la Rocque was quite angered by Laval's failure to persuade Mussolini to stand firm in front of Germany's "bluff", and thus the Minister of Foreign Affairs saw himself replaced by Paul Reynaud (1). Reynaud had followed a long path from his early days with the
Alliance républicaine démocratique (ARD, Democratic Republican Alliance) and switched sides after the crisis of 1934. Now, the new Minister flew to Rome to make a deal with il Duce. Unexpectedly, he was to become wittness of a tragic event: the assassination of Benito Mussolini.
Apparently, all the process that led to the death of il Duce began in 1936, when a Briton called Alexander Foote deserted the RAF to go to Spain, where, according to some people, a revolution was to take place. Thus he came, he saw and he got depressed by the lack of "revolutionary spirit". There he was offered by a Red Army agent a chance at "secret and dangerous" work and Foote accepted without having the slightest idea of what he was going to do. In Geneva he met his spymaster, Ursula Hamburger, "Sonia", a Communist German exile who sent him to Milan to learn about the enemy and pick up some Italian, hoping that another foolish Briton going on "tour" wouldn't be noticed by Mussolini's secret police, the "OVRA (Organizzazione per la Vigilanza e la Repressione dell'Antifascismo, Organization for Vigilance and Repression of Anti-Fascism"). Suddenly a chance to assassinate il Duce appeared. Sonia sent Foote a collaborator, Leon Beurton to help him in the mission.
Benitto Mussolini (1883-1936)
The chance came from Lybia. There Italo Balbo, governor of Libya, had set out himself into an Herculean effort: to turn the coast of Lybia in the "Fourth Shore", the southern part of "Greater Italy". To achieve this he began by building the Via Balbia, an highway intended to create a land route between Tripoli and Benghazi, and by colonizing Libya with Italian settlers. Balbo’s dream was to turn Libya again in the breadbasket it was in Roman times and to achieve that he decided to do it with instituted massive irrigation and ecological reclamation efforts and a flood of Italian settlers. Early attempts at colonization had been mostly private ventures and largely unsuccessful but Balbo was determined to bring permanent settlers by the hundreds of thousands. With the help of hired geologists, mining experts, and various explorers, Balbo began a vast building program of schools, utilities, transportation, houses and entertainment. By October 1936 the influx of settlers was so great that Balbo leased two ocean liners at government expense to bring them to Libya. The departure of one of those liners, the
Antonia Graza, (2) from Naples (7 December 1936), which was to become a big Fascist event presided by il Duce himself, became thus the chance for Foote and Beurton to strike hard.
Thus Foote saw himself carrying a bomb hidden in a small envelope that Beurton had carrefully prepared with the help of a still-today-unknown exile, who claimed to be an "expert" in explosives. Alàs, that Third Man was not so expert as he claimed, as Foote discovered too late. The Briton managed to evade the attention of the OVRA by pretending to be a member of Mosley's BUF arrived to Italy to "learn" about the wonders of the "great Italy" that il Duce was building. He even had some faked introductory letters from several Fascist leaders to prove that. Thus, on the crucial day he managed to mingle among the crowd and move quite close to where the Issota-Fraschini limo bearing the Duce’s standard stopped. As the limo doors opened and Ciano stepped out, Foote began to manipulate the bomb. Then something misfired. Literally.
As il Duce himself exited the car in almost regal attire, the crowd pressed forward to see him. Foote found himself lost in a human wave before the Carabinieri managed to bring some order. However, the rush had send poor Foote close to il Duce. In fact, too close to comfort as he stood looking eye to eye to the not quite bemused Fascist leader. Foote then remebered that he had triggered the bomb and thought hurriedly what to do next abut before he could do anything or Ciano could bark some order to the Blackshirts, his father in law and Foote discovered that Beurton had made a small mistake: the fuse was shorter than expected and ten seconds after Foote had activated it, the bomb came to life and an explosion rocked Naples harbour.
Thus Alexander Foot vanished in a blaze of glory, along with Mussolini and Ciano, whose churned remains had to be removed from a lamp post..
Confussion and chaos spread all around. Victor Emmanuel III declared martial law himself and activated the army to assist the carabineri in maintaining public order. He then phoned Balbo to tell him about the murder and to warn him about rumors of plot within the party. Meanwhile, in spite of the efforts of the army and the Carabinieri, pro-fascists and anti-fascists clashed on the streets, leaving twenty five dead on the streets in the hours that followed the magnicide. In the halls of the Chamber of Deputies things were getting truly heated. Accusations, finger-pointing, and blatant power grabs started at once while the factions and divisions long exploited by Mussolini in order to maintain control over the party now turned on one another.
Italo Balbo piloting the I-MANU on the way to Rome.
Then Balbo arrived to Rome. At 9 o'clock in the morning (8 December 1936), the I-MANU, Balbo's personal SM.79, together with four more bombers and loaded up with supplies, luggage, his family and his advisers, made a fly-by over the city, still covered by the ashes and smoke of the fires caused by the riots and partisan clashes. The weary citizens of Rome looked up at the spectacle. Most were still shocked, but here and there a wave or even a cheer erupted. Then the radio announced that Marshal Balbo was going to land at the airport. A spontaneous crowd of people began moving towards the airport to greet him.
As he exited the plane he was received with shouts of "Viva l'Italia!", "Viva Balbo!", and even (to the
Gerarchi's consternation -3-) "
Duce! Duce!".
The Flight to Rome, as it became known, was a crucial moment in Balbo's career. In typically Balbian fashion he had arrived to Rome at a time when no other major player had so much as appeared on a high balcony, but he had also met and embraced the people of Rome at their darkest hour. In a "
stunning display of bravery and leadership" or a "
shameless self-promotion stunt", Balbo had placed himself in the center of Italy's attention.
Balbo in Rome: the beginning of his bid for power.
(1) Laval makes me uneasy so I picked a solution offered by Atlantic Friend's
Crossfires, a French AAR for HoI2 Doomsday
(2) This is a revenge for the film "Ghostship", it goes without saying.
(3) Gerarchi: the big bosses of the Fascist party.
@H.Appleby. And the hordes shouting "We want Gilbraltar back". No, let's keep it nice and quiet...
Perhaps... However, to do that would be to repeat Napoleon's mistake. Do you think he's read enough history to do that?
@Mr. Santiago: Indeed. Alàs, we shall never know...
Ethiopia, Spain and China are the Kenny's of the AARland.
@Nathan Madien: I must agree. The typical Fascist grandeur is sometimes too amusing.