In the personal archive of a British secret agent posted to Rome in 1917, we find evidence of the secret service and conservative establishment supporting the March on Rome and the success of Benito Mussolini.

Who is behind the birth of Fascism and the Duce’s success? Using key sources, this book presents the work carried out by the British secret service DMI (Directorate of Military Intelligence) in Italy between 1917 and 1918, during the final phase of the Great War.

This mission involved preventing anti-war movements in the Catholic and Socialist world following the Battle of Caporetto. The British undertook to support and establish a new, young and charismatic leader capable of stabilising Italian politics in a direction favourable to Great Britain. “The man of providence” – as described in the documents that would eventually be published – was the former Socialist Benito Mussolini, hired directly by the head of the DMI, drawing from the British secret service coffers. The British held a top secret meeting in Milan, attended by Mussolini and the men closest to him, during which the strategy to bring him to power was planned. The story goes as far as the murder of Giacomo Matteotti and brings to light the British plot to destroy evidence of the link between Amerigo Dumini, the head of the commando that abducted him, and the British secret service.

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