Most of us World War II buffs know Hitler liked Mussolini and saved his neck after the Duce was deposed by his people. But what is less known is the terrible vengeance Hitler exacted on the Italians for doing away with Mussolini and surrendering to the Allies. As soon as King Victor Immanuel placed the Duce under arrest, Hitler poured panzers into northern Italy, sent paratroopers to break-out Mussolini from jail, and flooded the country with the unholy organ's of Himmler's SS. Jews were rounded up wherever found and shipped off to the death camps. Civilians were murdered for the slightest provocation, real or imagined. The Germans seized the population's food and starvation was rampant. For the Americans and British making the Anzio landings in January 1944, a special surprise was in store for them:
"Although the Germans had not prepared conventional military defences, they had deliberately wreaked environmental sabotage on the area. At vast expense in the 1930s, Mussolini had drained the Pontine Marshes and settled 100,000 Great War veterans to farm the reclaimed land. Mosquitoes, which had plagued the region, were virtually eliminated. After the Italian surrender, two of Himmler’s scientists planned revenge on their former ally. They had the pumps turned off to flood much of the area again and destroyed the tidal gates. They then introduced the malaria-carrying breed of mosquito, which could survive in brackish water. The German authorities also confiscated stocks of quinine, so that the disease spread. The inhabitants not only found their land and homes wrecked, but more than 55,000 contracted malaria the following year. It was a clear case of biological warfare."
Historian Antony Beevor, excerpt from The Second World War
Interesting stuff...I had never heard this.
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