Monterotondo, 9 and 10 September 1943

Shortly after 25 July 1943, Adolf Hitler sent Paratroop General Kurt Student to Italy to plan Mussolini’s rescue and the takeover of key Italian centres of power, thereby reinstating fascist rule. Germany’s highest-ranking officials in Italy—General Field Marshals Kesselring and von Richthofen, Military Attaché General von Rintelen, and Ambassador Mackensen—successfully delayed the immediate implementation of these plans. They argued that a National Socialist coup and the reinstatement of a weakened, now discredited regime could have serious international repercussions. Left out of their arguments was the fact that at this point in time, the German military presence on the Italian peninsula was weak.

Of the drawn-up plans, the only one to be realized besides the freeing of Mussolini was capture of the ‘Centro Marte’: the headquarters of the Royal Italian Army’s general staff, in the vicinity of the town of Monterotondo on the Via Salaria, north of Rome. In reality, the headquarters, including General Mario Roatta and his entire general staff, had already begun evacuation on 8 September. However, strong contingents of Italian troops remained in and around Monterotondo.