Et Tu, Brute?: The Assassination of Benito Mussolini

******

From the September 30th, 1936 morning edition of the New York Post:

MASSACRE IN ROME!

Hundreds Gunned Down In The Streets By Nazi SS Squads, Vatican Sacked;
FDR Orders Atlantic Fleet Put On Alert

From the afternoon edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer that same day:

HITLER WARNS ITALIAN PEOPLE AGAINST RESISTANCE TO ITALIAN OCCUPATION

Pledges More “Harsh Reprisals” If There Are Any Further Partisan Attacks

From the evening edition of the October 1st, 1936 New York Times:

AMERICAN AMBASSADOR IN BERLIN RECALLED; GERMAN AMBASSADOR EXPELLED FROM WASHINGTON

Lindbergh Calls Rome Massacre “Deplorable”

ITALIAN-AMERICANS HOLD MASSIVE PROTESTS AGAINST HITLER

100,000 Gather In Times Square To Condemn Rome Massacre; Similar Rallies Organized In Boston and Chicago

From the 2011 Military Channel documentary The Italian Resistance:

The Rome massacre has been referred to by some historians as the “Lusitania” of the Second World War, a tipping point that pushed America from the last traces of a cautious neutrality into outright belligerency. Certainly the massacre did a great deal to make Americans more willing to consider the idea of taking up arms against Hitler’s empire...

From the October 2nd, 1936 Völkischer Beobachter:

OUR FOREIGN MINISTER CONDEMNS UNFORGIVABLE INSULT BY ROOSEVELT

Jew Criminal To Blame For Break In Relations Between America And The Reich

From the morning edition of the October 3rd, 1936 New York Times:

FDR SAYS NAZIS RESPONSIBLE FOR BREAK IN U.S. TIES WITH GERMANY

Tells White House Press Corps Hitler “Has Created Atmosphere Of Hostility” Between Washington And Berlin

From The Italian Resistance:

The Nazis had hoped that the Rome massacre would cow the Italian people into submission, but it turned out to have just the opposite effect; overnight the ranks of the resistance forces swelled with a new wave of volunteers determined to drive Hitler’s troops out of Italy. Many of the new recruits were anti-Fascists who saw the German occupation of Italy as vindication of their past opposition to the now-defunct Mussolini/Badoglio regime; many others were former Fascist loyalists who had once supported the idea of a German-Italian alliance but been sadly disillusioned by Hitler’s brutal subjugation of their homeland....

From the October 3rd, 1936 Daily Mail:

ITALIAN GUERRILLAS RAID GERMAN GARRISON AT TARANTO

Official Nazi Account Claims Attack Defeated With “Catastrophic” Losses To Insurgents; Neutral Observers Question Veracity Of Berlin’s Report

From the October 5th, 1936 Montreal Gazette:

SLAUGHTER IN TARANTO

70 Italian Civilians Executed By German Troops In Retaliation For Guerrilla Raid On Local Nazi Garrison

From the evening edition of the October 6th, 1936 Baltimore Sun:

HITLER ORDERS OCCUPIED SUDETEN LANDS INCORPORATED INTO GERMANY

Heydrich, Himmler’s Top Deputy, Appointed To Oversee Annexation

From the afternoon edition of the October 8th, 1936 Chicago Tribune:

CHAMBERLAIN TO VISIT WASHINGTON FOR HIGH-LEVEL DISCUSSIONS WITH PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT

British Prime Minister Also Scheduled To Meet With Secretary Of State Hull; Nazi Threat In Europe Believed To Be Main Item On Chamberlain’s Agenda

From The Italian Resistance:

Before the Rome massacre and the subsequent Roosevelt-Chamberlain summit in Washington, the idea of a Nazi invasion of the United States would have been scorned as a Goebbels propaganda pipe dream or a third-rate Hollywood movie plot. But during the second day of his conference with the President, the British prime minister dropped a bombshell: British intelligence agents had uncovered credible evidence suggesting the Nazis’ aggression against Italy, Poland, and Czechoslovakia was simply the prelude to a longer-range quest for world domination whose final objective would be to crush the United States as a major power....

From the October 11th, 1936 Völkischer Beobachter:

OUR FÜHRER DENOUNCES AMERICAN LIES ABOUT GERMANY’S WAR AIMS

Warns Roosevelt “Aggression Will Not Be Tolerated”

From the morning edition of the October 12th, 1936 Washington Post:

FDR BLASTS HITLER’S SPEECH TO REICHSTAG

Accuses German Chancellor Of “Slandering” United States

From The Italian Resistance:

The German preparations for eventual war with the United States which Chamberlain had alluded to during the second day of his summit with President Roosevelt were collectively known to the Wehrmacht as Fall Zed, or “Case Z”. Case Z was a four-point plan specifically intended to make the Third Reich ready to mount an invasion of America by 1941 The most vital element of this plan was a development project to design and build warships that would be able to confront the U.S. Atlantic fleet on the high seas, with special attention to improving the range and the destructive power of Germany’s submarine force....

From the book Gray Wolves: The Rise And Fall Of Nazi Germany’s U-BoatFleet, copyright 2003 U.S. Naval Academy Press:

In addition to upgrading the range and weapons capabilities of its combat submarines, the German navy sought to create a special class of U-boat known as a “milk cow”, which was essentially a seagoing filling station. The purpose of the “milk cow” was to provide refueling for U-boats at sea in order to allow them to stay at sea for longer amounts of time and travel greater distances than previous generations of submarines had been able to manage. To say the least, its advent was an alarming development from the perspective of the United States and Great Britain...

Please Comment In The Discussion Forum

Sitemetre