Rita Luisa Zucca (Italian: [ˈriːta luˈiːza tˈtsukka]; 1912–1998) was an American-Italian radio announcer who broadcast Axis propaganda to Allied troops in Italy and North Africa.
[3] As the Allied invasion of Italy progressed, the Fascist government of Benito Mussolini decided to try to emulate the German radio's Axis Sally broadcasts of Mildred Gillars.
In the summer of 1943, the Italian national radio network in Rome hired the 30-year-old Zucca with this aim in mind, in spite of her losing a typing job in 1942 for copying an anti-Fascist pamphlet.
On July 8, 1943, the night before the invasion of Sicily, Zucca's broadcast told "the wonderful boys of the 504th Parachute Regiment" that "Col. Willis Mitchell's playboys the 61st Troop Carrier Group are going to carry you to certain death.
[3][5] A correspondent from the American military magazine Stars and Stripes said that Zucca's well-known crossed-eye condition did nothing to detract from her attractiveness: "True, her left eye is inclined to wander — but that cooey, sexy voice really has something to back it up.
The FBI's J. Edgar Hoover wrote to the Justice Department: "In view of the fact that she has lost her American citizenship, no efforts are being made at the present time to develop a treason case against her.