War in Italy 1943-1945: A Brutal Story

by RichardLamb (Author), RichardLamb (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  1995

  $3.51

  Richard Lamb, one of the few Italian-speaking officers in the Eighth Army, took part in the campaign in Italy, fighting with the royal Italian Army. He describes Italy from Mussolini's fall until the final victory, drawing on captured Mussolini documents and on British, Italian and Vatican archives. In particular, he spotlights an unbroken sequence of German infamies. He reveals how, to abort Churchill's plan to open the Dardanelles, German troops massacred in cold blood many thousands of surrendering Italians in the Aegean Islands. He details the deportation of Italian Jews to Auschwitz and the wholesale killing of Italian hostages. He discloses the fate of 600,000 Italian prisoners of war sent to labour camps within Germany.

• Used

  Paperback
  1996

  $12.35

  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.

• Used

  Hardcover
  1993

  $5.61

  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 .