The second Italian Facist regime : la Repubblica Sociale Italiana (RSI) was set up today, with its capital, not in Rome, but Salo, a small town in Lombardy on Lake Garda, Northern Italy, where the RSI had his Foreign Office.
Mussolini was its head, but it was nothing more than a German puppet, dependent on its military and financial support.
Mussolini had been rescued from captivity in a daring raid by a soon to be famous German SS Colonel, Otto Skorzeny on September 12th.
Italy had surrendered on the 8th and the Allies had landed at Salerno on the 9th and were fighting the Germans in the south of Italy at this time, though they had not yet captured the city port of Naples.
Hermann Goering' gold-plated handgun up for aution
-
This was the handgun he handed over duting his capture.
-
Nice.
-
Interesting that it’s a Walther PPK, the type of gun that later served as James Bond’s signature firearm in most of the movies.
-
Goering liked a lot of ‘bling’. Very nice handgun.
-
There’s a scene in the movie Across the Pacific in which Sydney Greenstreet shows his pistol (I think it’s a 38-caliber gun) to Humphrey Bogart, who puts his Colt 45 pistol alongside Greenstreet’s and comments, “Mine’s bigger than yours.”
Suggested Topics
