On the 28th of April 1945, the former deposed fascist dictator of Italy, a man who had well and truly lost the Second World War, was dragged out of a vehicle alongside his mistress and was ordered to stand by a wall. He had been condemned to death for his treason and crimes, and Benito Mussolini faced his death with alleged dignity, it’s believed.

Opposite him stood an executioner, a partisan armed with a machine gun. When the order was given, the executioner littered the body of Mussolini and his mistress in bullets, and the pair fell to the ground, immediately killed. But this was not the end of the ordeal for Mussolini, and the following day his remains were taken to Milan, where the public took out their anger and hatred on a man who had plunged their sons and fathers into a conflict many believed they had no right in fighting.

Mussolini’s posthumous display, his corpse being strung upside down after it had been battered and brutalized, showed how people felt about him, and this was more than just a few slaps on the face. His body was even shot at more, and one woman delivered a ferocious kick that was so violent it almost took his head off.

In this video, we look at why witnessing this posthumous ordeal was worse than you ever believed. Benito Mussolini was captured on the 27th of April 1945 by a group of local partisans who attacked a Luftwaffe convoy which was heading towards Germany. As the Second World War broke out, Mussolini allied his nation with Hitler and the Nazis, forming the Axis Alliance.

This alliance plunged Italy into a war alongside the Nazis fighting the British, Americans, and Soviets, but inside of Italy, he was becoming very hated. The Italian war effort was a costly disaster, and many Italians lost their sons and husbands, and they were furious. Mussolini was deposed and was later to be imprisoned, but was freed by a commando raid ordered by Hitler, and he was appointed the leader of the Italian Social Republic, a Nazi puppet state in the north of Italy.

But he knew that the war was lost, and he believed that Hitler could provide him some form of protection. When his convoy was attacked, he wasn’t first found, but eventually he was discovered slumped in one of the vehicles, and it was said that his face was like wax and his stare glassy, but somehow blind.

I read utter exhaustion, but not fear. Mussolini seemed completely lacking in will, spiritually dead. He had been trying to get to Germany. After his capture, he and his mistress were later reunited, and it was decided that they would be executed. The following day, executioner Walter Audisio collected Mussolini and Clara Petacci, and then took them out to the Villa Bel Monte.

He ordered them out of the truck and then stood by a wall, and he shot them ruthlessly in a hail of bullets. It was ruthless and quick, but then what came next was completely shocking. Many would have believed that with the dictator dead, the time for healing in Italy would now come, but the Italians were very angry, and they wanted vengeance against their former dictator.

The bodies of Mussolini, Petacci, and the other partisans were dumped inside of Milan on the 29th of April 1945, specifically in the Piazzale Loreto, a square where many partisans had been shot before by Mussolini’s forces. The bodies were dumped in a heap in the square at around 9:00 a.m.

, and then word spread about this, and thousands of people gathered to see the body and corpse of Mussolini. But the crowd then became sinister and out of control, and they soon turned to beat and batter the corpse of Mussolini. The corpses were pelted with vegetables and were even urinated on, but things were much worse than this.

Eyewitnesses inside the square portrayed the true terror that was inflicted upon the corpse. One witness claimed that the body lay at the rim of a jumble of other corpses, hemmed in by a pushing mob. The clear air resounded with shouts and with shots fired upwards to dissuade the encroaching throng.

But at that moment, Mussolini retained a vestige of dignity. He wore a gray-brown jacket over military trousers, gray with a red-lined black stripe down the side. His close-shaven head was propped on the ruffled white blouse of his mistress, Claretta Petacci. His eyes were slightly open, but they displayed vacancy rather than resentment or even surprise, and Claretta was beautiful even in death.

But Mussolini’s boots were muddied, and the left one hung half off as if his ankle were broken. And when I shifted my position, I saw that a bullet had emerged 3 in below the right ear in a sickening protrusion of brains and bone. Now, as the sun came up, things became much more tense inside of Milan.

It was said that the partisan guards were gradually forced back. One woman screamed and spat at the dead. In mid-morning, two young men managed to break through like broken field runners, each aiming a kick at the dictator’s tempting skull. The first kick glanced off, but the other landed full on the right jaw, and there was a hideous crunch. I’d never cease to hear it.

Before my eyes, it destroyed the facial contour of Mussolini that the world had known. From then on, the jawline was gone, and the head had to be backed with a rifle butt to be photographed. When the butt was removed, the head flopped over like dough. After that, things got out of hand.

More bullets were fired into the corpse, more people managed to curse and defile it. Before noon, Mussolini and Petacci were suspended by the heels from the girder of an unfinished gas station. The partisans were careful to tie Claretta’s dark skirt between her knees. One reluctant eyewitness was Achille Starace, former secretary general of the fascist party.

Captured separately, he was brought in on an open truck and made to stand with his hands above his head as the truck drove right up to the makeshift gibbet. Then he was moved through the crowd to a white wall just beyond. His hands were still high and his mouth trembled. There was a prolonged volley. Within minutes, Starace was hung up alongside Mussolini with three others.

Finally, after a plea by the cardinal archbishop of Milan, the six were cut down. All bodies reached the morgue at 2:15 p.m. What had happened was that the people had battered and beat Mussolini’s face so it was barely recognizable. Another witness, another person who saw this, said, “While I watched a civilian trampled across the bodies and dealt Mussolini’s shaven head a terrific kick.

Someone pushed the twisted head into a more natural position again with a rifle butt. Although Mussolini’s upper teeth now protruded grotesquely, there was no mistaking his jaw.” In death, Mussolini seemed a little man. He wore a fascist militia uniform, gray breeches with a narrow black stripe, a green-gray tunic, and muddy black riding boots.

A bullet had pierced his skull over the left eye and emerged at the back, leaving a hole from which his brains dripped. Mistress Petacci, 25-year-old daughter of an ambitious Roman family, wore a white silk blouse. In her breast were two bullet holes ringed by dark circles of dried blood. The mob surged and swayed around the grizzly spot.

One woman emptied a pistol into Mussolini’s body. “Five shots,” she screamed, “five shots for my murdered sons.” Others cried he died too quickly, he should have suffered, but the hate of many was wordless. They could only spit. It was a terrible sight and scene, and the decision was then made to string the bodies up from the half-built service station as mentioned, to in a sense protect them from the crowd.

But things continued to be thrown at the bodies, and they were strung upside down in an act of disgrace. Mussolini’s body was heavily bloodied, and his face was very swollen. Eventually, when the Americans arrived, they ordered the bodies to be cut down, and they then took them to a morgue where Mussolini was autopsied.

The bodies were photographed, and they showed the extent of the posthumous beating. Mussolini’s face was so disfigured it looked like a complete swollen mess and was heavily bloodied, as was his T-shirt that he was wearing, which was also covered in blood. The autopsy confirmed that there were four bullets near to the heart, which were given as the cause of death, and there were in total either nine or seven bullets in Mussolini’s body.

Presumably, some from these Presumably, some of these had been shot into him inside the square. The posthumous ordeal of Benito Mussolini had a profound effect upon Adolf Hitler, and he may have learned about the full gory details and then took action to bring his own life to an end and ensure his corpse did not fall into the hands of his enemies.

But within the square, the ordeal of Mussolini’s remains was much more savage than his actual execution, which lasted just a few seconds. Thanks for watching. To support our channel, please make sure to subscribe, and once again, thank you so much for watching.