Harald Mors

Major Otto-Harald Mors (1910 – February 11, 2001), was a battalion commander, with the Fallschirmjäger, who planned and led the Gran Sasso raid to rescue Benito Mussolini, following his arrest in September 1943. He received the German Cross in Gold on 26 September 1943.

Mors played a key role in planning the raid, and participated as commander of the secondary force that secured the lower cable-car station at the foot of the Gran Sasso mountain as the airborne raid was underway at the mountain top, where Mussolini was held. In spite of this, all the merits and limelight of the raid went to Otto Skorzeny, because Mors' father was being "watched" by the Gestapo and the Major himself was deemed "politically unreliable".