After September 8, 1943, following Mussolini’s arrest and the armistice with the Anglo-American forces signed by Badoglio, Northern Italy was occupied by the German army. Veterans of the Spanish Civil War became some of the main organizers of the Resistance, drawing on the military and political experience they had gained in the civil war, in a people’s army, and in underground struggle. Many of the commanders of the Italian Resistance came from their ranks, leading combat operations among partisan formations in the mountains and among urban guerrilla units carrying out actions in the cities, up until the Liberation.