UDSKRIFT 🔗
WEBVTT
1
00:00:01.560 --> 00:00:09.359
September 12, 1943. 6,000 feet above Italy's Apennine Ridge. Inside
2
00:00:09.400 --> 00:00:13.460
the tight canvas and steel frame of a DFS-230 assault glider,
3
00:00:13.519 --> 00:00:15.710
ten men grip their weapons in dead silence.
4
00:00:16.320 --> 00:00:16.929
No engines.
5
00:00:18.269 --> 00:00:20.969
Just the screaming sheer, thin mountain air and the violent
6
00:00:21.010 --> 00:00:22.350
turbulence bouncing.
7
00:00:21.989 --> 00:00:23.570
Them over jagged rock walls.
8
00:00:25.070 --> 00:00:29.539
Below them sits the Hotel Campo, Imperatori, a remote ski
9
00:00:29.600 --> 00:00:33.090
lodge perched on the Gran Sasso Massif. It's essentially an
10
00:00:33.210 --> 00:00:36.009
island in the sky, accessible only by a single cable
11
00:00:36.090 --> 00:00:42.210
car system. Inside is Europe's most famous political captive, Benito Mussolini.
12
00:00:43.450 --> 00:00:47.619
Six weeks prior, Mussolini's fascist regime had buckled from within.
13
00:00:47.780 --> 00:00:52.479
Stripped of command by King Victor Emmanuel II, Duce, was
14
00:00:52.539 --> 00:00:54.539
quietly bundled into captivity.
15
00:00:54.840 --> 00:00:57.750
Hitler wanted him back. Not out of loyalty, but out
16
00:00:57.770 --> 00:00:58.490
of necessity.
17
00:00:59.149 --> 00:01:01.859
Germany needed a puppet to secure northern Italy against a
18
00:01:01.920 --> 00:01:06.480
surging Allied line. The rescue mission was codenamed Operation Oak.
19
00:01:07.019 --> 00:01:11.680
On paper, the insertion was madness. Parachuting onto a 6,500-foot
20
00:01:11.780 --> 00:01:12.980
peak was a death sentence.
21
00:01:13.540 --> 00:01:15.640
The air was too thin, the wind was too violent,
22
00:01:15.659 --> 00:01:16.819
and the rocks unforgiving.
23
00:01:18.060 --> 00:01:24.709
Planners, chiefly Luftwaffe paratroop commander Major Harald Mors, chose gliders.
24
00:01:25.930 --> 00:01:29.150
The target landing zone was a tiny, steeply sloped triangle
25
00:01:29.189 --> 00:01:30.250
behind the hotel.
26
00:01:31.090 --> 00:01:33.959
Abrupt, Glider 3 hits the mountain.
27
00:01:34.599 --> 00:01:39.000
The skids dig into jagged limestone scree, grinding violently to
28
00:01:39.060 --> 00:01:43.459
a stop just meters from a sheer drop-off. Outspilled German
29
00:01:43.659 --> 00:01:49.719
Falschmiger alongside SS personnel, weapons raised. Among them was Otter Skorzeny,
30
00:01:50.450 --> 00:01:53.069
a towering SS captain with a dueling.
31
00:01:52.750 --> 00:01:54.430
Scar carved down his left cheek.
32
00:01:55.239 --> 00:01:59.540
They expect a brutal firefight against 200 Italian guards, but
33
00:01:59.579 --> 00:02:02.659
Moore's planners have built a psychological.
34
00:02:02.000 --> 00:02:03.400
Wedge into the vanguard.
35
00:02:04.140 --> 00:02:07.579
Leaping out of the lead glider alongside the assault force
36
00:02:07.599 --> 00:02:11.840
is Italian General Fernando Solletti. As the stunned guards lift
37
00:02:11.860 --> 00:02:14.000
their carbines, Solletti screams across the.
38
00:02:13.979 --> 00:02:16.360
Courtyard, Hold your fire! Do not shoot!
39
00:02:17.020 --> 00:02:21.419
Confusion paralyzes the Italian ranks. In special operations, three seconds
40
00:02:21.460 --> 00:02:26.930
of hesitation is an eternity. Before the garrison can recover
41
00:02:26.969 --> 00:02:30.430
its nerve, the paratroopers swarm the perimeter, disarm the post,
42
00:02:30.469 --> 00:02:33.639
and breach the hotel. Not a single shot was fired.
43
00:02:34.060 --> 00:02:37.340
Mussolini is pulled from his room, stunned and bewildered, but intact.
44
00:02:38.580 --> 00:02:43.870
The tactical phase one was complete. Now came two. Came extraction.
45
00:02:44.409 --> 00:02:48.389
A frail single-engine Feisler storage observation plane manages to set
46
00:02:48.449 --> 00:02:51.930
down on the rocky slope to pull Mussolini out, but
47
00:02:51.949 --> 00:02:54.909
Skorzeny knowing that being left on the mountain means losing
48
00:02:54.939 --> 00:02:56.729
control of the narrative, demands to board.
49
00:02:57.870 --> 00:03:00.669
He weighs well over 200 pounds. The pilot protests.
50
00:03:00.689 --> 00:03:04.129
The plane's already passed its maximum takeoff limit at high altitude.
51
00:03:04.909 --> 00:03:09.530
Skorzeny bullies his way into the cockpit anyway. Mind you,
52
00:03:09.560 --> 00:03:13.259
this part of the story has been disputed. The storage
53
00:03:13.300 --> 00:03:16.319
hurtles down the improvised runway, hits a ditch, bounces off
54
00:03:16.360 --> 00:03:18.300
the edge of the cliff, and drops toward the valley
55
00:03:18.340 --> 00:03:22.000
floor before catching the thermal draft and limping into the sky.
56
00:03:23.039 --> 00:03:25.560
Operation Oak was.
57
00:03:25.460 --> 00:03:28.580
An interesting, it was a great example of joint tactical planning,
58
00:03:29.419 --> 00:03:34.780
glider piloting, and psychological warfare. But the moment the dust settled,
59
00:03:34.819 --> 00:03:39.159
Berlin's propaganda machine took over. Major Moores and the Luftwaffe
60
00:03:40.120 --> 00:03:42.939
pilots who designed and executed the mission were largely erased
61
00:03:42.969 --> 00:03:47.849
from public accounts. Instead, Joseph Goebbels plastered Skorzeny's scarred face
62
00:03:47.889 --> 00:03:50.909
across global headlines, crowning him the most dangerous man in Europe.
63
00:03:51.740 --> 00:03:54.879
The operation rescued a broken dictator and established a bloody
64
00:03:54.960 --> 00:03:58.599
puppet regime in northern Italy. But its most enduring legacy
65
00:03:58.650 --> 00:04:03.949
was proving how easily flawless small unit execution can be stolen, repackaged,
66
00:04:04.289 --> 00:04:05.949
and transformed into political myth.