Adolf Hitler was waiting on the platform when Benito Mussolini got off the train early that morning. Newsreel cameras captured the stiff arm Nazi and Fascist salutes, the confident smiles and the quick review of the SS Honor Guard in funereal black uniforms and white gloves. The two dictators quickly drove to the Führer’s compound hidden deep inside the forest guarded by a whole regiment of Waffen-SS. The “Wolf’s Lair” was a cluster of hastily built small buildings and bomb shelters where the “Oberster Kriegsherr,” the Supreme Warlord, was directing offensive operations with the support of a huge military and civilian staff of several thousand the nerve center of Germany’s OKW.
Mussolini’s entourage of nearly one hundred people including secretaries, journalists, generals and lesser officers, policemen and bodyguards and a few diplomats were being shown to their relatively modest quarters within the compound. The Duce and the Führer immediately adjourned to a private meeting in a small wood panneled conference room where they sat at a round oak table. Hitler was in excellent spirits, the war in Russia was going beyond his best expectations and he looked much more excited than Mussolini had seen him the summer before in the wake of France’s defeat. The Führer was gesticulating exuberantly as he spoke much too fast and impatiently for the Duce to fully understand everything he was saying. Mussolini’s knowledge of German was far from perfect and a work in progress at best. But he noticed once again how Hitler’s watery blue eyes remained ice cold and expressionless with that intense unblinking stare that the Italian intuitively felt was a sign of a mentally unbalanced mind.
“Duce, believe me, the Russians are as good as beaten. We have taken almost one million prisoners, entire armies are surrendering en masse and Stalin cannot possibly replenish such immense losses fast enough to hold on. By the early fall we shall take Moscow will reach the Urals in the spring. European Russia will be ours. The rest will be left to rot.”
Mussolini smiled and listened patiently as Hitler went on chapter and verse about his unbeatable strategic vision. Then as he paused briefly for a glass of water Mussolini was finally able to place a word.
“Führer, the reports I have read indicate that the Russians are fighting furiously and retreating in good order. Even though you continue to take huge masses of prisoners this is certainly not a rout comparable to the French a year ago. If the Russians can hold until the winter we may be in trouble because America will continue to ship larger convoys of military supplies to Britain and now to the Soviets. I have given this issue a lot of thought…”
Hitler was not a good listener and as Mussolini went on speaking in his low, quiet voice, the Führer fidgeted with the buttons of his uniform finally managing to interrupt. This short talk just confirmed the rumors he had heard that the Duce had been railing against the invasion of the USSR, calling it a colossal mistake.
“Duce, I understand the logic of your thinking and am very much aware of what the British and their American protectors are up to. I am pressing Japan to attack the Soviet Union in Siberia and top advisors in the Imperial Japanese government agree that this is what the Axis alliance requires …once that attack begins the Russians will have to surrender because they can’t possibly fight simultaneously on two fronts.”
The discussion then turned to the recent Atlantic Charter declaration by Roosevelt and Churchill with Hitler ranting at “the paralytic and the drunkard” who together sought to subvert the world. Mussolini was unable to add anything more. Suddenly after a pause Hitler asked:
“Duce, I was surprised to notice the absence of Count Ciano among your entourage.”
Mussolini was expecting some kind of comment about Ciano’s conspicuous absence at such a glorious moment for the Axis. He rightly suspected that Hitler was well informed of the Italian foreign minister’s predicament.
“Führer, I regret to say that Count Ciano is unfortunately temporarily ill and unable to travel. He is expected to recover very soon, however.”
Hitler nodded and replied in his most unctuous voice and with a very Viennese bow that Mussolini found supremely irritating:
“Duce, please be sure to give the Count and the Countess Edda Ciano, my best wishes for a speedy and complete recovery.”
Hitler’s trademark stare at the close of that comment confirmed Mussolini’s suspicion. The Duce was furious. Hitler was informed of every last dirty detail and was privately gloating with Goebbels at the Duce’s personal and political problem. Nazi espionage in Italy was very well organized.
Just a few days before he was to leave on the historic visit that would take him into freshly conquered Russian territory in the Ukraine, Mussolini was told that Ciano had suddenly fallen ill. At first the dictator voiced concern but since no further information was forthcoming he grew suspicious and demanded to know the details. Mussolini was well aware of the foreign minister’s many weaknesses. His daughter Edda who usually berated her husband the Count both in public and in private, was suddenly much too protective of her husband. Galeazzo was not in Rome but “recovering” at his villa near Leghorn.
“Recovering from what?” roared a furious Mussolini who ordered a swift and top secret OVRA investigation into Ciano’s mysterious illness that was apparently so serious as to prevent him from traveling. A top secret report was on his desk a few hours before boarding the special train at the Ostiense railway station. The Duce was beside himself with anger. The administrative language of the text could not dilute the potentially horrific scandal it contained should it ever surface.
“The subject (Count C.) was alone at his villa at Ponte a Moriano with the usual team of servants. At about 2100 hours two cars with Florence license plates pulled into the driveway. On board were two men in their late thirties and five young women ages twenty to thirty. By 2300 hours after a long dinner all the servants had been dismissed and ordered to leave the premises for the entire night. A wild party then got underway. The Count’s driver and personal bodyguard was interrogated at length and confirmed that as he left to sit in his car he noticed that guests at the villa were walking around stark naked, drunk and engaging in orgiastic sexual activity. At 0156 the chauffeur was summoned to the villa. The subject had fallen ill and was having trouble breathing. At 0212 hours a car approached the gates. It was Dr….S. from Pisa who had been called in an emergency. The subject was thought to have collapsed of a heart attack and had lost consciousness at that time. We were able to verify that the subject had consumed an inordinate amount of the powerful narcotic cocaine together with equally large quantities of alcohol. He was taken to a clinic where his stomach had to be pumped and was then placed in a controlled environment at home under strict medical supervision with three nurses and two doctors watching over him around the clock. He has been slowly recovering since then but remains very weak. A complete recovery is expected but it will require several months of rest and medication. We have conducted interviews with the doctor, the nurses as well as the young men and women who attended the party. The latter are currently being held at a prison near Pisa until Your Excellency issues the appropriate orders.”
Mussolini issued those orders just minutes before boarding his special train for East Prussia: the doctors and nurses were sworn to absolute secrecy and would remain under constant surveillance; the two men in question were immediately drafted into a disciplinary infantry battalion as privates to be sent to the front lines in Russia. They were not expected to come back alive. The women were dispatched to military brothels in North Africa and were also not expected back in Italy. Ciano recovered slowly after inhaling a large quantity of pure cocaine and drinking whiskey in a near lethal combination. He had slipped into a dangerous semi-coma and required several weeks to recover and was unable to function as foreign minister. He returned to his desk at the foreign ministry months later following a long convalescence.
The Duce wondered what Adolf Hitler would have done with someone as irresponsible as Ciano? Compassion being totally alien from the Führer’s vocabulary, the only decision would have been whether to execute Ciano or opt for some form of incarceration or permanent exile. Mussolini feared and admired Hitler; he envied that savage, implacable, and carnivorous instinct of his to annihilate any obstacle in his path and take pitiless advantage of all forms of human weakness. Hitler’s son in law would have certainly disappeared from the face of the earth in the most brutal manner possible. That was Hitler’s trademark; as the quintessential beast of prey living in the expectation of feasting on weaker individuals. Like a beast he was also insatiable. Now Hitler was cannibalizing armies, cities, races, religions, and burning down entire civilizations like dried up forests. He had set the world on fire and the blaze could no longer be contained…he was indeed a monstrous and frightening individual and someone that Mussolini both loathed and found dangerously attractive.
The Duce took no decision after reading the report but in his mind he was already replacing Count Ciano as foreign minister. Hitler was beginning to express his concern rather openly because of the increasingly negative attitude the Count displayed towards Germany. The Führer had even cited examples and promised to deliver documents with proof of the extent of Ciano’s disloyalty to show that he only wished to warn the Duce against his treacherous son in law. Mussolini was both fearful and furious. Ciano’s dismissal however could not happen immediately without damaging the Axis. Mussolini also required more time for the secret operations against dissidents in America where Ciano had a hand. He had to be patient.