on july 25, 1943, mussolini was removed by the great council of fascism. on september 8, 1943, badoglio said that the war as an ally of germany was ended. italy started fighting as an ally of france and the uk, but italian soldiers did not know whom to shoot. in northern italy, a movement called resistenza started to fight against the german invaders. on april 25, 1945, much of italy became free, while mussolini tried to make a small northern italian fascist state called the republic of salò. the fascist state failed and mussolini tried to flee to switzerland and escape to francoist spain, but he was captured by italian partisans. on 28 april 1945 mussolini was executed by a partisan.