Hotel Campo Imperatore

During a German military operation (Operation Oak), the deposed Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was freed on 12 September 1943. It was planned and organised by Kurt Student. It was carried out by the Parachute Training Battalion with the participation of 16 members of the SS, the latter led by Otto Skorzeny, in the Gran Sasso d'Italia in Abruzzo. Mussolini was held in this hotel. Skorzeny's gliders landed around the hotel to free him. Everything is still there as it was then. The hotel is closed but can still be reached by road and cable car. The valley station of this cable car was also taken at the time by German paratroopers under the command of the leader of the entire operation, Major Harold Mors. During the capture of the cable car, a forest ranger who wanted to warn the garrison on the mountain and a carabiniere were killed.