During the four hour passage, a completely miserable Mussolini was sea sick constantly. He had, however, during one of the moments when his rebellious stomach allowed him onto the open deck, elicited from the not so talkative young officer, that he was being taken to a quiet beach near Naples where they would be met by more police guards and escorted elsewhere to a safe residence. Also there to meet him would be his mistress, Claretta Pelacci.
The ex-dictator felt new hope and resolution flare within him. His mind started working again. He would rouse his supporters and resume his leadership of Italy. The treacherous King would be deposed and exiled. The useless Marshall Badaglio would be tried and executed. But first, more retching and vomiting.
It was already dark as the launch nosed on to the almost deserted beach near Naples. The naval Lieutenant was first to alight from the bow of the boat, managing to keep his feet dry. He assisted a grateful and weak Mussolini down onto the land, and ordered the boat crew to leave him and take the launch back to base.
In the gloom beyond the beach they could see the outline of two vehicles, a truck and a motor car, and a small group of people. On the beach itself, between the people and the boat, stood a single person. It was Claretta Pelacci, waiting for her Benito!
Mussolini in his black overcoat and black felt hat, hastily stumbled through the sand towards her, closely followed by the naval Lieutenant.
The lovers embraced and whispered endearments. They were so glad to be together again. Claretta had thought she would never see her Benito again. She now believed that their situation could only get better. Perhaps they would be allowed to live quietly together away from all the politics! They kissed passionately.
This was the signal for the young naval Lieutenant to put a bullet into the back of the ex-dictator. As he fell forward, still clutching the woman, a second bullet was put into Claretta’s heart. She hadn’t even had time to scream. They were both dead.
The men around the vehicles now came forward. They briefly scanned the bodies using a dim lantern, whispering among themselves. They confirmed the identities of the bodies. One of them exclaimed, “It’s Big-Head and his whore.” Nothing more was said by anyone and they loaded the two corpses onto the truck, covered them with an old canvas sheet, and drove away into the night.
The tall thin naval officer walked up to the car, climbed into it, and was driven away towards Naples without a word being spoken. His identity was never discovered.
The following morning those citizens of Naples who had risen early and were passing through one of the city squares, were shocked to see two bodies hanging from a lamp post, strung up by their feet. They were soon recognised as Il Duce Mussolini, and his mistress. The news quickly spread and a crowd gathered to see this unexpected and shocking sight. Many in the crowd took great delight in verbally insulting, and even physically abusing, the remains of the couple. Many photographs were taken. Rumour had it that communist agitators were responsible for the executions. The perpetrators were never identified.
Thus ended Fascism in Italy.
The investiture of Baron von Altendorf had taken place at Buckingham Palace. The pomp and ceremony that surrounded the event had almost overwhelmed the emotions of the normally reserved Baron. No country in the world even came close to the British in staging ceremonial occasions.
His entire family had been there to witness the honour bestowed upon him. Even General von Brauchitsch had forsaken his dislike of foreign travel to be with his colleague and friend. Winston Churchill and the Deputy Prime Minister, Clement Atlee, together with Lord Halifax and the current Foreign Secretary, Sir Anthony Eden, were among the first guests to congratulate him. All of these were currently out of a permanent job following the dissolution of parliament before the general election to be held the following week.
Despite the war between them only two years earlier, there was almost universal agreement in Britain and Germany that relations between their two countries were extremely close. In a private meeting with von Altendorf and von Brauchitsch, both Churchill and Attlee had echoed this sentiment. Both of them were also extremely enthusiastic about Britain’s new commitment to the European Alliance.
Attlee had been faced with some opposition and criticism from a small but vocal minority within his socialist Labour Party, but these militants had been resoundingly defeated in parliamentary voting. Indeed, it was known that some Labour Members of Parliament were little more than Moscow controlled communists in disguise. The majority of Labour Party MPs were in favour of the European Alliance and had voted accordingly.
Von Altendorf had wished both Churchill and Attlee good luck in the forthcoming election. Privately he hoped Churchill and his Conservative party would carry the day. ‘I think he will be easier to work with, and his policies are more workable for Britain than those of the Labour Party’ he thought.
At another, later, private meeting between von Altendorf, von Brauchitsch, Lord Halifax, now British Ambassador to the USA, and Sir Anthony Eden, the British Foreign Secretary was handed a dossier by the Germans, marked ‘Top secret’. Britain’s intelligence service, MI6, were part of Eden’s domain. He was considered by the Germans to be the best placed person to deal with the matter they were now about to disclose.
Von Brauchitsch did most of the taking. “Sir Anthony, what I have to say to you is highly confidential. All we ask of you is that whatever action the British Government takes or does not take, the source of your information is never disclosed.”
“You have my word, General.”
Von Brauchitsch continued. “Germany has devoted considerable time, money and effort over the past few years to build up an extensive intelligence network in the Soviet Union. I think you will agree that the need for this is obvious.”
“Quite so” Eden confirmed.
“We have been passing to your MI6 any intelligence we have gathered that we considered to be of interest to Great Britain. However, in this particular case we thought it more appropriate to inform yourself directly of something we have discovered.”
He paused to make sure he had Eden’s complete attention.
“One of our agents is well placed within the Soviet Intelligence Bureau. He has established that they are running a group of five high echelon officials within the British intelligence services and your Foreign Office. They have been in place for at least two years but probably much longer. They are closet communists.
A summary of the findings, together with the names of the spies, is in the dossier you now have.”
Eden was both shocked and extremely worried by what he was now hearing. There had been a suspicion at some time within MI6 that there was a mole somewhere in the organisation, but they had never been able to find anything concrete. He glanced through the document, spotted the names of the alleged spies and the record of some of the information they had passed to the Soviets. He went pale. The traitors names were Guy Burgess, Anthony Blunt, Kim Philby and Donald MacLean.
“I see only four names. You said there was a gang of five.”
“We don’t know the name of the fifth person, only that he exists.”
This was something that could hurt the Conservative Party’s re-election campaign if it leaked out! The scandal and ensuing bad publicity would be disastrous. It would have to be handled very discretely.