Benito Mussolini had a large impact on World War II. He wasn't always a powerful dictator though. At first he was a school teacher and a socialist journalist. He later married Rachele Guide and had 5 children. He was the editor of the Avanti, which was a socialist party newspaper in Milan.<br><br>Benito Mussolini founded the Fasci di Combattimento on March of 1919.<br><br>"This was a nationalistic, anti liberal, and anti socialist movement. This movement attracted mainly the lower middle class."1 Fascism was spreading across Europe. Mussolini was winning sympathy from King Victor Emmanuel III. Mussolini then threatened to march on Rome. This persuaded King Victor Emmanuel III to invite Mussolini to join a coalition, which strongly helped …show more content…

With unexpected anger, Dino Grandi, a much respected council member shouted:<br><br>"In this war, we already have a hundred thousand dead, and we have a hundred thousand mothers who cry: 'Mussolini has assassinated my son!'...You have imposed a dictatorship on Italy that is historically immoral." After hours of heated debate, the party leaders in the early hours of July 25 voted 19-7 for a motion of no confidence in the ageing dictator. On this very same day King Victor Emmanuel III diverted Mussolini of his powers and then later arrested him. <br><br>"After his arrest, Mussolini was taken to a ski lodge on Gran Sasso d'Italia in the Apennine mountains about 75 miles north-west of Rome. The lodge was accessible only by a railroad and had been built so recently that it was not marked on military maps or on mountain climbers charts. But German intelligence agents under the direction of SS Captain Otto Skorzeny had learned of Mussolini's whereabouts, and at Hitler's direction a rescue mission was organized.<br><br>To determine how safe the landing will be, Skorzeny flew over the Gran Sasso at 15,000 feet in a Heinkel-111. Leaning out the window in a numbing 200-mile-an-hour wind, he took pictures while his friend held tightly to his legs. These pictures showed a spot where they could land their planes. <br><br>When Skorzeny and his 90 men swept silently down on the lodge in 12 gliders, they discovered to their great dismay that the meadow had a rapid drop-off