Show german reveals ryse buse employed in duce escape italian merchant involve involved ed in clever plot says giant paratrooper DACHAU GERMANY accord ing to a story told here three years after the death of mussolini a ro mantic italian rn merchant erchant who thought he was only playing cupid helped hitler rescue mussolini the story came from the prison cell of S S lt col otto Skor zeny giant paratrooper whose feats made him the most publicized german sol dier of the war Skor zeny wrote a 42 page account of his abduction ol 01 II 11 duce on hitler s orders meeting the press in advance of his trial on charges of violating the laws of war Skor zeny a also iso denied be he had ever tried to kidnap general of the army dwight D eisenhower Elsen hower but he said he snatched hungary a adm nicholas horthy from the ad avancing russians Sk orenzy s personal account of his capture of mussolini after a crash glider landing high in the App enines is a lurid tale of derring do he hitler informed me said Skor zeny that he was firmly re solved not to leave his friend mus in the lurch and to prevent under all circumstances his eitra to the allies mussolini was wa tor for him not only an ally but he also called him his one and only great friend the last of the ancient ro mans of the caesarian trad tion searched four months under gen gerr kurt student the S S colonel said he set out with a hafl ol 01 five to find the duce well bidder hidder by the badoglio baroglio Ba doglio government skor zeny scoured italy tor for four months in september he heard M mussolini might be held in the App enines near gran sasso he spoke to an italian merchant I 1 irI invented vented a girl friend rome who had fled in tear fear of allied bomb attacks and begged him tc help me send her a love letter the italian informed me that tha t the gran sasso valley was entirely kordonec cord cordo oneo off and that the resort hotel evict ed its personnel and the only way of access was out of bounds to al traffic the man still anxious to try to tc deliver the love letter re to Skor zeny later a rumor that al the secrecy had something to dc with mussolini Skor zeny prepared 12 gliders each with nine men and took off for the 6 foot aerie the farsi two crashed almost as soon as they the took off behind a cloud bank the other dived on the the mountain Skor zeny landed 50 feet from the hotel the italian guards were too surprised to tc act and the hotel was surround ed without resistance I 1 reported to mussolini duce the fuehrer has sent me as a token toker of his loyal friendship mussolini embraced me and assured that he h had daily expected his extradition to the allies but that he would have put an end to his life beforehand some confusion Skor zeny decided to take off an improvised field in a plane built for one or two gers we almost reached the brink ol 01 a cliff when a ditch suddenly cu straight across our path we hopped over the ditch and coasted over the brink after a drop of perhaps I 1 ON feet the pilot succeeded in gamin gaining control the plane flew over the valley just above the ground in patica de mare they trans berred to transports anc flew to vienna thence to hitler I 1 headquarters Skor zeny went on trial with eichi of his fellow S S men charged with using american uniforms in efforts to spread confusion behind the al hed lied front lines he says he neve never did that mission that his only mis sion was to charge through retreat ing U S troops in order to blast the th bridges across the meuse and cu cut off escape i in the wild confusion of ahe the ar dennes bulge all sorts of rumors about Skor zeny s corps cropped up including the story that he aimea for general eisenhower Elsen hower s persona headquarters we never got close enough eve to consider it he said wryly |