This country is at war with Germany.

We shall go under the end.

I remember the sheets of blame which came up and almost blinded us for my guns.

Hello and welcome to another episode of the World War Two podcast. I'm Angus Wallace.

In April 1945, with the Allies closing in, the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini,

with his German bodyguards, decided to flee Milan.

The convoy was later joined by a Luftwaffe column retreating towards Germany,

making it a powerful force.

In this episode we're going to be looking at Mussolini's last days,

the race between the USSR and the Italian partisans to kill or capture him.

I'm joined by Malcolm Tudor. Malcolm is an Anglo-Italian author,

specialising in Italy during World War Two.

He was last with us for episode 86, discussing the SAS in Italy.

His new book is Mussolini, the last 10 days, a new investigation.

Malcolm, welcome back. It's nice to have you with us again.

Now, before we get to the last days of Mussolini in April 1945,

let's set the scene. He was overthrown and arrested in July 1943.

What had you been doing in the intervening time-through to the sort of April 45?

Mussolini basically has been a feature of Italian life for a whole generation.

From 1922, people grew up with Mussolini really.

As a result of his military misadventures,

he lost his popularity at one time. It's very popular in 1930s,

...