The Churchill Letters

[Editor]

The Churchill Letters by Marc Roland

In another thread on this forum the Churchill Papers were touched upon in an off-topic discussion. Above is an interesting article written by Marc Roland in the Barnes Review Sept/Oct 2010 discussing this subject in some detail. The article is based on an extract from the book "Mussolini's War", Helion Publishing, Ltd., UK, 2010 written by Frank Joseph, available at amazon:

Mussolini's War: Fascist Italy's Military Struggles from Africa and Western Europe to the Mediterranean and Soviet Union 1935-45 by Frank Joseph (Amazon)

Judging by the number of eyewitness accounts, Winston Churchill's public admiration for Mussolini up to WWII, and the credibility of the witnesses, it appears that at least some correspondence between Winston Churchill and Mussolini probably occurred. However, an interesting aspect of the article is the discussion around the planned joint operations between RSI and Allied troops to combat Communism in Europe (a plan the US wholly objected to), this is not far-fetched since RSI troops operating in north-central Italy were given pre-planned orders at the end of the war to move to the Yugoslavian borders to oppose Tito in what was to be a defense of Istria and the Dalmatian coast, together with Allied forces; not to mention Churchill's well known stance on Communism, and that the Allies (or Churchill specifically) believed RSI forces were better to oppose the spread of post-war Communism than the Co-belligerent forces the Allies believed to be mostly communists.

It appears Churchill was indeed up to something after the war, he visited and stayed in Italy for a period of time and was still in contact with British intelligence services while he visited places Mussolini stayed at the end of WWII - Churchill made no such effort or showed no interest in either Germany or in Hitler's last days or where Hitler stayed or who Hitler was in contact with. However, even if the letters showed Churchill's willingness to collaborate with the RSI or Fascist Italy, there is little difference it would have made to his legacy since Churchill was a well-known anti-communist who actively opposed it; for instance, he considered sending British forces to help the Finns in the Soviet-Finnish Winter War 1939/40, an act that would have been a declaration of war on the Soviet Union in 1939 - and, after-all, the Soviets had plans of their own to dominate the rest of Europe post-war. There was nothing wrong with admitting this, in fact it was prudent - but we can only speculate on what was contained in the letters. There is one supposed copy of Mussolini's files and letters still in existence but kept private, perhaps someday we'll learn more on this matter. To those who believe Mussolini's files likely hold little significance, a supposition put forth mainly by British historians, we only need to look no further than the Germans who made strenuous efforts to seize Ciano's documents (Mussolini's son in-law) which would eventually be used as the basis for the case against Joachim von Ribbentrop at Nuremberg. Thanks to Ciano's wife, the diaries, and supporting documents, were smuggled to Switzerland where they were microfilmed and sent to the United States.

It’s a fascinating story and an interesting read that fills in some gaps at the end of the war.

[Bruno P]

That there was a correspondence between Churchill and Mussolini is a fact reported by many sources and now considered established. Relations between the two heads of state were certainly more than good until 1935. It seems, but I repeat it seems, that the correspondence continued even after the signing of the Patto d'Acciaio between Italy and Germany and even after the entry into war of Italy. And this correspondence was still in Mussolini's possession in his last hours of life, before his execution on the shores of Lake Como. Some witnesses report that in those hours several members of the Allied secret services were present in those areas in order to escape him from the summary justice of the partisans so that he could then be tried as he deserved. In this sense, an agreement was also reached which, however, did not come to fruition. There is in particular a figure from the British secret services who, it is said, managed to get hold of Mussolini's documents which disappeared with him. Clarifying what exactly happened is extremely difficult if not impossible. Starting from the witnesses on site: there were communist partisans and non-communist partisans and two of the latter were killed and their bodies made to disappear by the previous ones, like the partisan "Gianna" who drew up the inventory of what Mussolini possessed at the time of capture. There are very sad pages of history of what communists committed towards other anti-fascists.
Personally, I am certain that the correspondence is kept in London and I hope one day, who knows when, they will be made known and some pages of history will be able to be revisited.