War in Italy, 1943-1945: A brutal story

Richard Lamb, one of the few Italian-speaking officers in the British Army during World War II, has relied in part on newly opened Italian archives to present a surprising and unprecedented history of the war in Italy from Mussolini's fall until the final victory. Chronicling an unbroken sequence of Nazi infamies, Lamb reveals how German troops massacred thousands of surrendering Italians in the Aegean islands, deported Italian Jews to Auschwitz, and slaughtered Italian hostages and POWs. Had it not been for Mussolini's frenzied attempts to protect his countrymen, Italy would have been treated even worse than Poland.Lamb answers important and controversial questions, such as why the Allies did not land unopposed in Italy before the Germans poured over the Brenner Pass, and why Pope Pius XII did not take a stronger stand on behalf of Jews and the victims of the Ardeatine massacre. He details Anthony Eden's opposition to an aid for Italian partisans, and the disastrous order form the War Office that British POWs should stay in their camps. He unfolds the extraordinary stories of the Cossack settlement in the Fruili, the attempted annexation of northern Italy by de Gaulle and Tito, the contributions of the Royalist Army to the Allied cause, the Italian civilians who helped Allied POWs escape, and the German generals who failed to obey Hitler's order to "scorch" all of Northern Italy.War in Italy will long remain the most complete account ever published of one of the most terrible dramas of World War II.

War In Italy, 1943-1945: A Brutal Story

History

Lamb, Richard

Military

Da Capo Press

Examines the rise of fascism in Europe in the years before World War II and why it was not stopped, arguing that a weak League of Nations and secret negotiations between Neville Chamberlain and Hitler were to blame

The Drift to War 1922-1939

Americas

St Martins Pr

Describes Nazi atrocities in Italy, reexamines Allied strategy, and recounts the fall of Mussolini

War in Italy 1943-1945: A Brutal Story

Montgomery in Europe, 1943-1945: Success or Failure?

Franklin Watts

In this work Richard Lamb tells the full story of the conflict in Italy, from Mussolini's fall and the Germans' race to occupy the peninsula up until the final surrender. He draws on recently released British, Italian and Vatican archives, the captured Mussolini papers and first-hand sources. In particular he reveals the infamies of German behaviour in occupied Italy: how surrendering Italians from the Aegean garrisons were massacred in cold blood, how Italian soldiers were used in German labour camps, how Jews were deported and civilians slaughtered. Had it not been for Mussolini's puppet government, Italy would have suffered the same fate as Poland. Evidence at post-war trials made nonsense of Alexander's claim that Kesselring was an "honourable opponent". Richard Lamb also explores the controversies of the war in Italy. Why did the Allies not land unopposed in Italy before German divisions poured over the Brenner Pass? Would an immediate airborne landing around Rome have been a success? Should, or could, the Pope have made a stronger stand on behalf of the Jews and the victims of the Ardeatine massacre? He also airs fresh issues of great interest, including for instance, Mussolini's hatred of Hitler, Eden's reluctance to help the Italian partisans, the fate of recaptured prisoners of war, the Cossacks settlement in the Friuli, and the German generals' refusal to obey Hitler's order to "scorch" all Northern Italy. Richard Lamb's first book, "Montgomery in Europe" won the "Yorkshire Post" prize; and his others were all named "books of the year" in "The Spectator".

Murray, 1993

Besides throwing favourable light on the dictator himself, this account of Mussolini's relations with Britain shows that Italy was ready to become Britain's ally until Britain felt obliged to take a lead in economic sanctions against Italy for its invasion of Abyssinia in 1935. Mussolini despised Hitler and his anti-Semitism, yet felt surprised and antagonized by Britain's mobilization of the League of Nations over the Abyssinian affair. Thus, this book shows, Britain missed the opportunity to bring the Italians onto the Allied side, as it did again when Italy attempted to make a separate peace in 1943.

Mussolini and the British

Biographies & Memoirs

John Murray Pubs Ltd

An important scholarly reassessment of Winston S. Churchill's wartime leadership.

Churchill as War Leader

Bloomsbury Publishing, Limited

Pascal: Structure and Style (Benjamin/Cummings Series in Structured Programming)

Computers & Technology

Programming

Benjamin/Cummings Pub. Co.

The ghost of peace, 1935-1945

M. Russell

Book by Richard Lamb, Ernest G. Mittelberger

In Celebration of Wine and Life: The Customs, Pleasures and Virtues of Wine-Drinking

Mittelberger, Ernest G.

Drake Publishers

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