The tracking seemed to have reached a stalemate, at this time Skorzny and others had followed Mussolini's footprints, and had traveled almost all over the Italian peninsula, and on December 8, this "cat and mouse" tracking search finally had a new clue, German intelligence officers intercepted a telegram sent to the Italian Ministry of the Interior, which read: "The guard unit near the Great Sasso mountain has been arranged", and the sender's name "Guyli" attracted their attention, because this person was a general of the Italian police, who had always been responsible for Mussolini's security,

Skorzny's eyes immediately turned to the Gran Sasso, about 160 kilometers northeast of Rome, the highest peak of the Apennines, where on the eve of the war the Italians built a winter ski resort at an altitude of 2,000 meters above sea level, and built a hotel on the mountain called "Campo Impaleta".

After a comprehensive analysis of various intelligence, it was believed that Mussolini was most likely interned in this hotel, and both Student and Skorzny wanted to find more information about the hotel, but almost nothing, because the hotel was built shortly before the outbreak of World War II and was not marked on all military maps, Skorzny and his adjutant Radel immediately began to fly aerial reconnaissance and found that the Campo Hotel was located about 1,800 meters high on the southern slope of Montecono, the highest peak in the Apennines, and was very cleverly built on the top of a steep cliff. The road to this mountainous area was blocked by Italian troops, with only one cable car connecting to the valley more than 100 meters below, guarded by about 250 soldiers around the hotel.

After analyzing Skorzny, he believed that if the ground troops were sent to attack from the bottom up, a division would be needed, and Mussolini could be killed by the soldiers guarding him.

In order to establish that Mussolini was indeed under house arrest in this easily defensible, ready-made "prison without fences", General Student took a difficult point to send a military doctor to the hotel to reconnoitre, under the pretext of looking for a place to recuperate for the paratroopers suffering from malaria, but the military doctor did not even board the cable car, and was stopped by a fierce officer below the cable car station, ordering him to leave the area or face arrest, although there is no direct evidence that Mussolini was imprisoned here, But all kinds of signs strengthened Skorzny's judgment,

On December 12, Skorzny took a more direct approach, taking a He-111 reconnaissance plane to conduct aerial reconnaissance in the area of Mount Sasso again, probably because of the cold winter, the automatic camera on the plane failed, at an altitude of 5,000 meters above Mount Sasso, Skorzny and his assistant Radel had to take turns leaning out, against the cold air current, holding a Leica camera down to take pictures, although the developed photos are very unclear, but you can see a small triangle of flat land behind the hotel,

Skorzny immediately began to develop a rescue plan, he felt that this triangle was the solution to all problems, because the difficult terrain made it impossible to enter from the ground, and because of the thin air and strong winds in the high mountains, ordinary paratroopers could not land at this altitude, so Skorzny proposed a bold plan: use 12 gliders, each carrying 10 commandos (including the pilot) to descend from the sky, use this triangle as a landing point, storm the hotel and rescue Mussolini, In the same way, the commandos landed in the valley, captured the cable car platform, prevented the Italian army from reinforcing to the top of the mountain, and then sent Mussolini to the Aquila airfield in the low mountains, where he changed planes and was sent to Hitler's high command,

The rescue plan was reported to General Student, the battle-hardened veteran couldn't help but be secretly surprised when he saw it, he handed the plan to the headquarters for discussion, almost no one believed that it could be successful, but others couldn't think of any other way for a while, and they didn't want to offend the commando captain personally assigned by Hitler, and finally Student still transferred a battalion of the 7th Regiment of the 1st Parachute Division, which had been fighting in Italy, to provide troops for the attack,

The two companies of the battalion, under the command of the battalion commander, Major Morse, were to reach Mount Great Sasso by road and occupy the cable car station in the valley below, the third company, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel von Belpsch with one eye, was to land in gliders and storm the hotel, while offering to send troops to capture Aquila airfield, and the 2nd Glider Wing I Group (I·/LLG2) to provide the necessary aircraft for the operation,

However, Skorzny decided that the Go242 glider of I·/LLG2 was too large to land on the ground next to the hotel, so Student immediately ordered the DFS230 glider of the 3rd Group of the 1st Glider Wing (III·/LLG1) to be transferred from the base in Austria, and each of the 12 DFS230 assault gliders used for the mission could carry 9 heavily armed paratroopers, so that a total of 108 soldiers could be transported, equivalent to 2/ 3. In Student's view, the tactics of surprise attacks and the superior firepower of the Germans could fully compensate for the lack of personnel, and it was agreed that Skorzny would lead the team to look for Mussolini in the hotel, Belpsch's paratroopers would be responsible for suppressing the defenders, and Student would assign gliders No. 3 and No. 4 to Skorzny and his men,

This was undoubtedly a very risky operation, and the night before the operation began, Skorzny summoned his men and said: "This operation is full of danger and may be lost at any time, if any of you do not want to participate, you can leave, I will never make any record of it, nor will I despise you for it, I will personally participate in and direct this operation, and those who wish to participate please take a step forward." "As a result, all the players have taken a step forward, which is very satisfying to Skorzny.

The plan of operation began at dawn on December 16, but was delayed for several hours, because the 12·/llg1 Henschel HS-126 tow aircraft had a short range and the cold weather in the morning, so they arrived at Platika Air Base on the southern outskirts of Daroma at about 10 o'clock, but it was also beneficial to delay the take-off, because it would be noon to reach the Great Sasso Mountain, and the Italians have the habit of taking a nap, which is bound to reduce the possibility of resistance,

Skorzny took advantage of this time and sent his adjutant Radel to summon General Soletti, who had a good opinion of the Germans, believing that the presence of the pro-German Italian official in the hotel with the attacking troops would help to persuade the defenders to give up resistance.

This general is very willing to act as an intermediary, firstly, because he has a good impression of Germany, and on the other hand, the Axis powers are still strong, and he does not know who will kill the deer, and after the fall of the Soviet Union, he thinks that the Americans are not Germany's opponents, and now he goes to participate in the rescue of Mussolini, and then the true feelings of this tribulation will inevitably be richly rewarded, of course, Mussolini was rescued, but if he can't be rescued, as long as Germany wins, he may not be able to replace him, but he was stunned after listening to Skorzny's plan, He was on the same plane as Skorzny,

At 11 a.m. on December 16, the first group of gliders from France arrived at the airport, and Student briefly briefed the glider pilots on their mission (the pilots had thought they had come to attack the Salerno beachhead, where the Allied landings had landed), and the HS-126 tractors were quickly filled with fuel, and the glider fleet was lined up for takeoff, but at 12:00 the air raid sirens sounded over the airport, and after a while, a group of American B-25 bombers skimmed over the airport, More than 10 bombs were dropped, fortunately none of the planes on the ground were damaged, at 13:05, the leading pair of HS-126 tractors finally took off with No. 1 and No. 2 gliders, and then took off a group every 2 minutes, and took off 5 pairs, except for the last glider No. 11 and No. 12 crashed into the crater on the runway, the rest of the gliders were successfully lifted into the air,

Inside the lead tractor No. 1, sitting behind the driver was Captain Langete, Studenter's intelligence officer, who had been flying with Skorzny on the HE-111 for aerial reconnaissance 4 days earlier, so he was also the only person among the tractor crew who had actually seen the landing area,

However, the two planes towing gliders No. 1 and No. 2 were lost in dense fog and thick clouds and had to return halfway, so that the glider No. 3 that Skorzny and Soleti were flying in became the pilot, the planes flew up and down in the clouds, the view inside the glider was not good, and it was very stuffy, General Soleti and several members of the team had already suffered from airsickness, and Skorzny decisively pulled out the paratrooper knife he carried with him, cut several holes in the cloth wall of the glider, and let cool air enter the cabin, After about 1 hour, the group arrived in the predetermined area, Skorzny ordered the glider to decouple from the tractor, and the 8 gliders began to descend from an altitude of 3,600 meters, and at about 1,000 meters above the ground, the soldiers pounced on their respective targets in two directions.

Just as Skorzne's plane was about to land, the pilot found that the pre-selected triangle was not only covered with stones, but also had a steeper slope than previously estimated, and the Italians poetically described it as part of the ski slope in their pre-war holiday book, and the unevenness of the field meant that the danger of landing was far greater than expected, and the pilot of No. 3 aircraft, Lieutenant Heinrich, was a little overwhelmed, and Skorzny behind him shouted: "Land quickly, land as close as possible to the hotel." ”

The pilot later recalled the scene of the landing: "The small black dot in the field of vision quickly turned into a large building, although the nose of the glider was equipped with a deceleration device, it was difficult for us to reduce our speed, so I changed course and approached the landing zone against a strong updraft from the ridge, I looked out, hoping to see the enemy's activity, but at first everything remained calm, and when I flew about 150 meters above the hotel, the soldiers in the hotel rushed out like ants that had been stabbed in their nests, They didn't look very hostile, though, and just stood there dumbfounded at the group of attackers who seemed to fall from the glare of sunlight. ”