Italian Grand Council of Fascism Votes to Depose Mussolini

On 25 July 1943, a few weeks after the allied invasion of Sicily and bombing of Rome, the Italian Grand Council of Fascism voted to depose Mussolini and replace him with Marshal Pietro Badoglio.

Mussolini was subsequently arrested on King Victor Emmanuel's orders.

After his arrest, Mussolini was transported around Italy by his captors. Otto Skorzeny, selected personally by Hitler and Ernst Kaltenbrunner to carry out the rescue mission, tracked him.

In July 1943, Mussolini was deposed by a revolt within his own Fascist Grand Council, and Vittorio Emmanuelle III, the King of Italy, reduced to a figure head by Mussolini, appointed Field Marshal Pietro Badoglio to be the new Prime Minister of Italy. Mussolini was arrested but later rescued by German paratroopers in a mountain top resort where he was imprisoned. After his rescue, he set up the Italian Socialist Republic in German-held northern Italy, with himself as its leader.