fighters raked the landing craft and troops. Richthofen’s bomb-
ers and torpedo planes damaged an Allied battleship and three
cruisers, not to mention the Italian battleship Roma sunk by
an Hs missile and several other Italian warships destroyed
by KG as they scurried for the safe haven of British-
controlled ports.
That day Hitler told Göring that he had already marched
Rommel into northern Italy, while Student was disarming the
Italian forces around Rome. By his well-placed mistrust of the
Italians, Hitler had saved Germany’s sizable forces in southern
Italy from betrayal to the enemy. On the afternoon of the tenth,
the Reichsmarschall was among the admiring Nazi leaders who
crowded around Hitler as he broadcast to Germany and the
world, uttering the grim assurance that “within three months”
the Reich would arise anew and go on to final victory.
A few days later the paratroops rescued the imprisoned
Fascist leader Mussolini in a daring coup, and flew him to Hit-
ler’s headquarters. What little admiration that had remained for
the Duce was dispelled as Rommel’s troops made astonishing
discoveries of strategic materials that the Italians had squirreled
secretly away, and as Kesselring uncovered hundreds of brand-
new Italian fighter planes. “The Italians and the Duce,” Göring
lectured Hitler triumphantly, expectorating an anger that had
built up over twenty years, “have been carrying on deliberate
sabotage for years. They simply hid all these materials and the
planes. The Duce was plain dumb. He ought to be shot right
now.” As Hitler’s war conference ended, Göring took Rommel
aside. “Act like lightning against the Italians,” he advised. “Above
all, don’t wait until the Duce’s back in office!”
“They had bigger stocks of copper than we do!” shouted
Göring to Milch a few days later. “But the most astonishing
thing is the fuel oil. Hidden in two tunnels we found enough to