Topic summary
Fall of Mussolini
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Fall of the Fascist regime in Italy.
"Forty-six days", armistice, and civil war
Grandi transmitted an account of the 2 August meeting to the foreign press representative on Sunday morning, but he knew it was blocked. Grandi understood that the new government wanted to let the Fascist contribution to the fall of Mussolini fade away. He convoked the ambassadors of Spain and Switzerland, who were eager to get a first-hand account, to his office in Montecitorio under the sole request that his account be published in the press. After the publication of the meeting in the Swiss press the next day, he met with Duke d'Acquarone, with whom he had an argument. Grandi later met the King, Badoglio and the Pope, proposing to be secretly sent to Madrid where he could meet his old friend Samuel Hoare, the British ambassador in Spain. He wanted to talk about Italy's surrender. The Germans were informed about his visit to Pius XII, and the Gestapo was tracing him. On 31 July, he met the new foreign minister, Guariglia, but Guariglia was not in a hurry to send him to Madrid.