German Leadership

'Smiling Albert'

General "Smiling Albert" Kesselring - German commander in Italy with policies which led to the execution of hundreds of innocent unarmed Italian civilians. He was sentenced to death after a British war crimes trial in Venice, but was spared after the intervention inter alia of Churchill, Alexander, and Leese who thought he was a decent fellow. Several million Italians knew otherwise. He was released on medical grounds in 1952, and died in 1960 aged 74. Greetz,brummbar