Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini was a fascist dictator in Italy during the 1930s. (AUDIO: The Rapture) Like Adolf Hitler, Mussolini rose to power with the help of his charisma. He had a distinctive, angled chin which helped to project this charisma. (PROSE: Warchild) He was, however, regarded as a "fatso" by people in the United Kingdom. (PROSE: Players)
He was famously able to keep trains running on time, by, rumour had it, keeping the clocks running a few minutes fast (PROSE: Instruments of Darkness) and by always keeping the lights on at the stations. (PROSE: Parallel 59) The Seventh Doctor also pointed out that it was a question of how the trains were run and what happened to the drivers who were late. (AUDIO: A Thousand Tiny Wings)
Mussolini expressed that ruling Italy was easy but utterly pointless. He had a vision of returning the nation to greatness. He allied himself with Hitler's Nazis, for which Edward Greyhaven later branded him a "fool". (PROSE: The Dying Days)
In 1936, Winston Churchill tried to warn people about the danger both Hitler's Germany and Mussolini's Italy posed to Europe. (PROSE: Players) However, his warning went unheeded. (PROSE: Log 384)
Mussolini's armies invaded Albania in 1939. (PROSE: Deadly Reunion) Later, during World War II, they marched into the Democratic Republic. (PROSE: The Earwig Archipelago) They also engaged the Allies in the Sahara Desert (PROSE: The Dying Days) alongside their German allies in 1941. (COMIC: The Instruments of War)
In 1943, the Allies invaded Italy. (PROSE: Deadly Reunion) Mussolini's own people rose up against him and a mob strung him to a lamp post, (PROSE: The Dying Days) followed by Italy's change of allegiance. Around the time of the Battle of Monte Cassino in 1944, Italian partisan groups had begun fighting the Germans in the north of the country. (COMIC: Treasure Trail) Mussolini was executed on 28 April 1945. (PROSE: Just War)
