WI: Mussolini successfully escapes to Switzerland

[Gorro Rubio]

Even full-scale sanctions from the Allies would bring a Benny-harbouring Franco regime to an end sooner than OTL.

The creaking Spanish economy would topple over, and a "you-can-have-Mussolini" faction of the army would send Franco into one or another form of 'retirement'.

It’d be the monarchist remnant probably, they had been leaking info to the British since 1940.

 

[Doctor Sulemain]

Even full-scale sanctions from the Allies would bring a Benny-harbouring Franco regime to an end sooner than OTL.

The creaking Spanish economy would topple over, and a "you-can-have-Mussolini" faction of the army would send Franco into one or another form of 'retirement'.

What does a "Franco deposed by the Allies in '45" Spain even look like? I'm assuming better then OTL, not that that's hard.

 

[Ricardolindo]

The three options seem to be:

a) The Swiss have to take him into custody "for his own protection" and hand him over to the Allies after a token protest, leading to The Trial Of Mussolini

b) He gets onto a plane to Spain which is intercepted

c) He makes it to Spain, and Spain is leaned on to hand him over to the Allies, which Franco does after a token protest

The least likely but most interesting would be if Franco protests too much and the Western Allies open a Spanish front, which completely changes Spanish history from '45 onwards

What if Franco handed over Mussolini but with the condition that he would not be executed? I wonder if once the Allies have Mussolini, they would, actually, honor the agreement with Franco. It's not like he has any way to force them to do so.

 

[Charles EP M.]

I would imagine if Franco asks that, he knows the Allies are going to execute Benito anyway and he's just making the request for the look of things.

 

[OwenM]

It’d be the monarchist remnant probably, they had been leaking info to the British since 1940.

I wonder if, ironically, that leads to a future democratisation being republican (perhaps a la Greece)?

 

[Von Callay]

What actually were the arrangements for the intended flight to Spain? What plane, flown by who, on what route? There wasn't some commercial service he was just going to charter, not in WW2, surely? A Spanish diplomatic flight?

 

[Von Callay]

The three options seem to be:

a) The Swiss have to take him into custody "for his own protection" and hand him over to the Allies after a token protest, leading to The Trial Of Mussolini

b) He gets onto a plane to Spain which is intercepted

c) He makes it to Spain, and Spain is leaned on to hand him over to the Allies, which Franco does after a token protest

The least likely but most interesting would be if Franco protests too much and the Western Allies open a Spanish front, which completely changes Spanish history from '45 onwards

I'll give you a fourth one, meant to frustrate everyone:

d) He gets on a plane and the plane takes off, but it does not get to Spain. Mechanical failure, bad weather, navigational error, a combination thereof, any scenario is fine for it, the idea is just that the plane crashes and Mussolini with it, in a way that doesn't produce an easily and rapidly identified wreck.

If it didn't produce immediately dramatic results (like a "Either you hand him over in 24 hours, you lying bastards, or we come get him ourselves" Allied invasion), it could possibly become one of those multi-decade mysteries of the end of WW2, because it would be impossible to say for sure what actually happened. You would have all kinds of theories, like that he did make it to Spain but the Spanish government hid him and denied he'd made it, or that he didn't fly to Spain but some third-party destination and is in hiding, or that the Allies did intercept and shoot down the flight, but there's a conspiracy to keep the fact silent, and so on.

 

[Death's Companion]

TBH if he makes it to Spain they probably just shunt him off somewhere quickly and either he gets tracked down through investigation or gets away with it.

I doubt Franco is interested in a giant shit fest with the Allies over him but he has other options than just putting him in a palace and daring them to come get him. Some cash and a ride to the boonies would work fine for Franco's purposes. I doubt that the former dictator spends much time in Europe.

 

[Charles EP M.]

If it didn't produce immediately dramatic results (like a "Either you hand him over in 24 hours, you lying bastards, or we come get him ourselves" Allied invasion), it could possibly become one of those multi-decade mysteries of the end of WW2, because it would be impossible to say for sure what actually happened.

Hordes of pulps about a surviving Mussolini trying to make a comeback!

 

[Coiler]

Hordes of pulps about a surviving Mussolini trying to make a comeback!

If the German government announcing Hitler's death near-immediately didn't stop the wave of "HITLER LIVED!" stories, I shudder at what a more ambiguous environment would do.

(Which is also why I think the Allied leaders would lean heavily on Franco/whoever was harboring him. I just can't see them letting an Axis head of state walk)

 

[neonduke]

Putting Mussolini in the dock would certainly be interesting, being in better physical and mental health than Hitler he'd probably be willing and able to attempt to turn the trial into a political theatre to defend Fascism and cement his legacy.

 

[Elektronaut]

If he makes it to Spain then presumably Franco tries a cold, hard barter rather than anything outlandish.

I'm guessing there's probably an understanding reached that everyone would be okay with a body.

 

[Charles EP M.]

I'm guessing there's probably an understanding reached that everyone would be okay with a body.

"He fell down the stairs."

 

[Von Callay]

"He fell down the stairs."

That is a great old roman tradition, the Gemonian stairs, I'm sure he'd be pleased.

 

[Space Oddity]

(Which is also why I think the Allied leaders would lean heavily on Franco/whoever was harboring him. I just can't see them letting an Axis head of state walk)

 

[ChrisNuttall]

It could easily turn into one of those political headaches that professional diplomats loathe.

"We don't want Musso, but we cannot be seen to give into blackmail from others either."

The smart thing to do would be to arrest him, stick him in a cell and quietly hand him back to Italy as soon as possible.

 

[Francisco Cojuanco]

Tbf, they didn't put VEIII on trial either. Mussolini can't claim to be a constitutional monarch. Like Tojo, he was PM.