Editing Benito Mussolini (section)

=== Role in [[World War II|WW2]] ===
In 1943, following the Allied invasion, his party turned on him, however, Mussolini ignored the council when they voted him out of power, and continued to until he was summoned before [[Victor Emmanuel III|King Victor Emmanuel III]] and publically arrested. In September Italy was practically occupied by the Germans, who rescued Mussolini and kept him as a figurehead leader of the [[Italian Social Republic]].

Mussolini's new regime faced numerous territorial losses: in addition to losing the Italian lands held by the Allies and Badoglio's government, the provinces of Bolzano, Belluno and Trento were placed under German administration in the Operational Zone of the Alpine Foothills, while the provinces of Udine, Gorizia, Trieste, Pola (now Pula), Fiume (now Rijeka) and Ljubljana (Lubiana in Italian) were incorporated into the German Operational Zone of the Adriatic Littoral. In addition, the German army occupied the Dalmatian provinces of Split (Spalato) and Kotor (Cattaro), which were subsequently annexed by [[Ustaše|the Croatian fascist regime]]. Italy's gains in Greece and Albania were also lost to Germany, with the exception of the Italian Aegean Islands, which remained nominally under RSI rule.