World War II Partisan Warfare in Italy

World War II Partisan Warfare in Italy
Author: Pier Paolo Battistelli
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 65
Release: 2015-08-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 1472808940

When Italy surrendered in 1943, it sparked a resistance movement of anti-German, anti-fascist partisans. This book explores the tactics, organizational structure and equipment of the brave Italian resistance fighters. Beginning with low-level sabotage and assassinations, the groups continued to grow until spring 1944 when a remarkable, unified partisan command structure was created. Working in close co-ordination with the Allies, they received British SOE and American OSS liaison teams as well as supplies of weapons. The German response was ferocious, and in autumn 1944, as the Allied advance stalled, the SS and Italian RSI looked to eradicate the partisans once and for all. But when the Allies made their final breakthrough in the last weeks of the war the partisans rose again to exact their revenge on the retreating Wehrmacht. From an expert on Italian military history in World War II, this work provides a comprehensive guide to the men and women who fought a desperate struggle against occupation, as well as the German and Italian fascist security forces unleashed against them.

A House in the Mountains

A House in the Mountains
Author: Caroline Moorehead
Publisher: HarperCollins
Total Pages: 520
Release: 2020-01-28
Genre: History
ISBN: 0062686380

"Dramatic, heartbreaking and sweeping in scope." —Wall Street Journal The acclaimed author of A Train in Winter returns with the "moving finale" (The Economist) of her Resistance Quartet—the powerful and inspiring true story of the women of the partisan resistance who fought against Italy’s fascist regime during World War II. In the late summer of 1943, when Italy broke with the Germans and joined the Allies after suffering catastrophic military losses, an Italian Resistance was born. Four young Piedmontese women—Ada, Frida, Silvia and Bianca—living secretly in the mountains surrounding Turin, risked their lives to overthrow Italy’s authoritarian government. They were among the thousands of Italians who joined the Partisan effort to help the Allies liberate their country from the German invaders and their Fascist collaborators. What made this partisan war all the more extraordinary was the number of women—like this brave quartet—who swelled its ranks. The bloody civil war that ensued pitted neighbor against neighbor, and revealed the best and worst in Italian society. The courage shown by the partisans was exemplary, and eventually bound them together into a coherent fighting force. But the death rattle of Mussolini’s two decades of Fascist rule—with its corruption, greed, and anti-Semitism—was unrelentingly violent and brutal. Drawing on a rich cache of previously untranslated sources, prize-winning historian Caroline Moorehead illuminates the experiences of Ada, Frida, Silvia, and Bianca to tell the little-known story of the women of the Italian partisan movement fighting for freedom against fascism in all its forms, while Europe collapsed in smoldering ruins around them.

Mussolini and Fascist Italy

Mussolini and Fascist Italy
Author: Martin Blinkhorn
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 81
Release: 2006-10-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 1134852150

First published in 1994. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

The Battle for Rome

The Battle for Rome
Author: Robert Katz
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 466
Release: 2003
Genre: Rome (Italy)
ISBN: 9780743216425

This landmark work draws on newly released documents and firsthand accounts to tell the dramatic story of Rome's dark days during the German occupation. 8-pages of photos. 2 maps.

World War II Partisan Warfare in Italy

World War II Partisan Warfare in Italy
Author: Pier Paolo Battistelli
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 161
Release: 2015-08-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 1472808959

When Italy surrendered in 1943, it sparked a resistance movement of anti-German, anti-fascist partisans. This book explores the tactics, organizational structure and equipment of the brave Italian resistance fighters. Beginning with low-level sabotage and assassinations, the groups continued to grow until spring 1944 when a remarkable, unified partisan command structure was created. Working in close co-ordination with the Allies, they received British SOE and American OSS liaison teams as well as supplies of weapons. The German response was ferocious, and in autumn 1944, as the Allied advance stalled, the SS and Italian RSI looked to eradicate the partisans once and for all. But when the Allies made their final breakthrough in the last weeks of the war the partisans rose again to exact their revenge on the retreating Wehrmacht. From an expert on Italian military history in World War II, this work provides a comprehensive guide to the men and women who fought a desperate struggle against occupation, as well as the German and Italian fascist security forces unleashed against them.

Terror in the Balkans

Terror in the Balkans
Author: Ben Shepherd
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 375
Release: 2012-04-13
Genre: History
ISBN: 0674065131

"Ben Shepherd ... uses Austro-Hungarian Army records to consider how the personal experiences of many Austrian officers during the Great War played a role in brutalizing their behavior in Yugoslavia. A comparison of Wehrmacht counter-insurgency divisions allows Shepherd to analyze how a range of midlevel commanders and their units conducted themselves in different parts of Yugoslavia, and why"--Jacket.

Partisan Diary

Partisan Diary
Author: Ada Gobetti
Publisher:
Total Pages: 385
Release: 2014
Genre: History
ISBN: 0199380546

From the entry of the Germans into Turin on September 10, 1943 to the liberation of the city on April 28, 1945, Ada Gobetti, translator, educator, and resistance activist, recorded an almost daily account of her life in the resistance movement against the fascist government and the Nazis. Part diary, part memoir, Gobetti's Diario partigiano (Partisan diary) provides a firsthand account of who the anti-fascist partisans in the Piedmont region of Italy were and how they fought.

The Balkans 1940–41 (1)

The Balkans 1940–41 (1)
Author: Pier Paolo Battistelli
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 97
Release: 2021-01-21
Genre: History
ISBN: 1472842588

The first of two volumes on the Axis campaigns in the Balkans, exploring Mussolini's fateful decision to move against Greece in October 1940. The Greek President Metaxas rejected the Italian ultimatum with a famous 'Oxi' ('No'), and what followed was Italy's first debacle in World War II. In the wake of Italy's rapid annexation of Albania in April 1940, Mussolini's decision to attack Greece in October that year is widely acknowledged as a fatal mistake, leading to a domestic crisis and to the collapse of Italy's reputation as a military power (re-emphasized by the Italian defeat in North Africa in December 1940). The Italian assault on Greece came to a stalemate in less than a fortnight, and was followed a week later by a Greek counter-offensive that broke through the Italian defences before advancing into Albania, forcing the Italian forces to withdraw north before grinding to a half in January 1941 due to logistical issues. Eventually, the Italians took advantage of this brief hiatus to reorganize and prepare a counteroffensive, the failure of which marked the end of the first stage of the Axis Balkan campaign. The first of two volumes examining the Axis campaigns in the Balkans, this book offers a detailed overview of the Italian and Greek armies, their fighting power, and the terrain in which they fought. Complimented by rarely seen images and full colour illustrations, it shows how expectations of an easy Italian victory quickly turned into one of Mussolini's greatest blunders.

At War on the Gothic Line

At War on the Gothic Line
Author: Christian Jennings
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 384
Release: 2016-03-08
Genre: History
ISBN: 1466871733

Christian Jennings's At War on the Gothic Line tells the little-known story of the Allied effort to break the German defenses in Northern Italy—told through the eyes of the multi-national force that fought it. In the autumn of 1944, as Patton’s army paraded through Paris, another Allied force was gathering in southern Italy. Spearheaded by over 100,000 American troops, this vast, international army was faced with a grim task—break The Gothic Line, a series of interconnected German fortifications that stretched across the mountains of northern Italy. Striving to reach Europe’s vulnerable underbelly before the Red Army, these Allied soldiers fought uphill against entrenched enemies in some of the final and most brutal battles of the Second World War. In At War on the Gothic Line, veteran war correspondent and historian Christian Jennings provides an unprecedented look inside this unsung but highly significant campaign. Through the eyes of thirteen men and women from seven different countries, Jennings brings history to life as he vividly recounts the courageous acts of valor performed by these soldiers facing overwhelming odds, even as many experienced discrimination at the hands of their allies and superiors. Witness the courage of a young Japanese-American officer willing to die for those under his command. Lie in wait with a troop of Canadian fur trappers turned snipers. Creep along mountain paths with Indian warriors as they assault fortified positions in the dead of night. Learn to fear a one-armed SS-Major guilty of some of the most atrocious war-crimes in the European theater. All these stories and more pack the pages of this faced-paced, action-heavy history, taking readers inside one of the most important, and least discussed, campaigns of World War Two.

Italian Partisan Weapons in WWII

Italian Partisan Weapons in WWII
Author: Gianluigi Usai
Publisher: Schiffer Military History
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2016-12-28
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780764352102

This book covers all classes and types of small arms, from pistols to heavy machine guns, known to have been used by the Italian partisans during WWII. It provides a brief history of the origin and development of the partisan movement in Italy following the 8 September 1943 armistice between Italy and the Allies and subsequent occupation of the northern portion of the country by Germany. There are many relevant examples of correspondence between partisan units relating to acquisition, distribution, use, maintenance, and problems encountered with the various types of small arms available. The majority of the pages of this book are dedicated to a complete, thorough, and extensive coverage of each individual type of weapon known to have been used by the partisans, including specifications, supported by current as well as vintage photographs showing the weapons in use by the partisans.