Milestones, Jul. 21, 1975

Died. Otto Skorzeny, 67, audacious Nazi SS colonel, saboteur and guerrilla fighter during World War II; of bronchial cancer; in Madrid. Skorzeny led the September 1943 glider-borne rescue of Benito Mussolini from the mountain-top hotel where he had been imprisoned by the pro-Allied Badoglio government. The exploit earned him the Iron Cross and der Fuhrer's gratitude, which he repaid by helping to thwart the July 1944 plot against Hitler, rallying SS units and halting a wave of executions so that Gestapo torturers could extract from conspirators the extent of the plot. As German armies pressed the Ardennes offensive during Christmas week...

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