By Benito Mussolini
This, comrade officers of the Guard, may be the first of a series of relations through which I intend to resume not only moral contact but also physical contact with you and your legionaries.
Before I tell you some things that may interest you in some way, I wish—not due to mere formality, but due to a deep impulse of my spirit, certain to echo your own sentiment—to address a warm greeting to the 2,763 legionaries (all those present stand at attention) who fell between September 1943 and today in order to remain faithful to the Fascist idea, to honor the alliance with Germany, and above all to keep faith in the destinies of the Fatherland. And I also would like to remember the 3,707 injured.
I also salute—and this is not an empty formality—our comrades who have been in the Balkans for months and years. During this period of time they had little news from their families, never a day of leave, they suffered all the consequences of the September betrayal far more than those who were in Italy. They saw with their own eyes the ridicule of the populations that we had administered; with profound humiliation they assisted in the lowering of our flags in territories that had been bathed by the blood of Italian soldiers, while Italian civilians were abandoned to reprisals by primitive people.
I believe their suffering has been such as to leave an indelible mark on their souls. From time to time they write to me and still have a very high level of morale. They fought with their German comrades under circumstances that were extraordinarily difficult, leaving behind hundreds of dead comrades in the districts of that treacherous Balkans, which will always be a land of muddy races.
Comrade officers!
You must maintain continuous contact with the legionaries. The era of officers being away from their men is over. You must stay with the legionaries, live with the legionaries, assist them, interpret them, even when they can not express themselves, be the editors of their souls, not merely men who give orders. Obedience must always be prompt, blind, absolute, but today it must also be intelligent. He who obeys must be convinced that it is his duty to obey. In this way your men will be in your hands and you can request of them anything that is necessary. But above all, dear comrades, be an example.
The soldier is reflected in his officer, and the legionary must see his officer as his guide, his teacher, a man who is animated by an unbreakable faith.
You must be the propagators of this absolute dogmatic faith in victory. He who doubts is already a loser preparing to bend his knee before the victor. No one is ever defeated until the day he declares himself defeated. From that day forward there is a loser and a victor; but never before.
Second. Collaboration with our German comrades must be daily, straightforward, loyal, unconditional. Sometimes the differences in language and temperament can be difficult, but we must remember that we are all on the same ship and we want to reach the port of victory together.
Third. I will tell you with the utmost frankness that I do not like those who always calculate what they or others receive. When a legionary does this, he is no longer a legionary, but a mercenary. I am not saying that the necessities of life should not be met, or that we should not think about our families, your families; but comparisons are always odious and perhaps outdated, because inequalities will be remedied.
Military spirit is an excellent thing. Everyone should be proud of his military branch. But this spirit must not degenerate into divisional exclusivism, i.e. assume grotesque aspects which make it ridiculous; on the contrary, it must be the consciousness of a duty that is carried out with purity of spirit—an ever deeper tradition—which becomes the spiritual heritage of the military branch to which one belongs.
Still, there is no doubt that the July 25 coup d'etat was perfectly carried out. It was a masterpiece. Everything had been arranged down to the most minute details of men, time and place. If the Royal Chief of Staff had prepared his battles with the same determination, then right now I would be speaking to you from a square in Cairo, rather than a suburb of Brescia. (Signs of consent and very lively approval). Evidently Fascism was surprised. Well, let's make one thing clear. The betrayed may be naive, but the betrayer is always infamous. (Very vivid applause).
Many leaders betrayed us, but the masses of Fascists were taken by surprise. For a long time the agents who prepared the treason constantly debated this dilemma: what will the Militia do? If the Militia remains at home to stand guard, they said: the Militia will be ambushed, they won't go off to war. And in fact, given the choice between remaining on guard duty or going to the front, all the legionaries greatly preferred the latter solution. But the traitors in the meantime achieved their goal of getting them out of the way. Therefore the best of the Militia were elsewhere, out fighting in the war. Fascism thus found itself in a position where conducting an immediate resistance was almost a practical impossibility.
There was the blurry phase. People were confused: "The war continues". The other traitor, the Savoyard, who continued a long tradition which began with Carlo Alberto, proclaimed that no recriminations should be made. The provincial Fascist leaders were recalled. The confusion was great. Evidently we were facing an immaturity of at least part of the Italian people. Nor can we expect that the moral structure of a people can be profoundly transformed in just twenty years of Fascism. It requires several generations. We must remember that from 1530 onwards, since the fall of the Florentine Republic, there were two centuries of non-bellicosity, during which, with the exception of Piedmont, no part of Italy had an Armed Forces. And one of the Grand Dukes of Tuscany had also found a formula that justified his non-bellicosity in a certain sense. He said: "Big princes, barracks and cannons—little princes, villas and lodges". (Laughter).
Italians who are not afraid of risking their skin are numerous; more than you may think. (Approvals).
But as I was saying, we were taken by surprise. I will add, however, that we will not be taken by surprise again. (Applause).
As I said in my speech in Milan, we have promised that we will defend the Po Valley city by city, house by house. This is a sacred commitment that we must carry out and that we will carry out, and we must prepare the legionaries for this defense. (Applause). I am certain that each of you will be especially proud if you can lead the legionaries in combat.
The Guard has already provided a division that fights with anti-aircraft and anti-tank artillery. These men initially had some hesitation, but today they are happy to be posted at the cannon, that great mouth that speaks with a voice which is intelligible to everyone.
We were taken by surprise at the end of a period which I define as the monarchist period of Fascism; we can not and will not be taken by surprise in the republican phase of Fascism. (Approvals).
If later events allow us to break through the Apennines—no one can exclude the possibility—I believe we would be met with a wave of enthusiasm, perhaps greater than we would even expect. (Very vivid approvals).
I did not tell you anything of exceptional interest tonight. The important thing, dear comrade officers, is to stand firm. And I will finish at the point where I started: you must come to terms with the fact that Germany can not be beaten. She can not be beaten for one very simple reason: both for her and for us, it is a matter of life and death. The cards are all on the table. They no longer tell Germany, as they did in the days of Wilson's famous fourteen points, that if they have a regime change then everything will be fine. No. After Yalta, they openly said that Germany must be destroyed as a people.
It is clear that the German people―from the highest of the citizens, i.e. the Fuhrer, down to the last of its workers―are engaged in a life or death struggle. Today the German General Staff and the German people are historically justified before God and men if they resort to all kinds of weapons in order not to succumb. (Prolonged applause).
What I have told you will be a guide for you and a reassurance in your daily mission. Everyone is able to navigate in times of peace; it is in difficult and extraordinary times that the souls strength is measured.
You must ponder my words and deliver them to your legionaries, making my words a tool for your daily guidance and above all be certain that Fascism can not be erased from the history of Italy. (They shout: "Never!"). In Occupied Italy they will do anything they want and still prove to be unintelligent, because nothing that goes down in history will be able to erase what we have done; the traces which we have left in the country and in the spirits of the Italians are too deep to think that these men resurrected from their graves―where they had lived until yesterday and where we must definitely drive them back to (vivid approvals)―can fight and win over our generations and our ideas, which represent and will represent the life and future of the Fatherland.
