Fascist Warfare, 1922–1945: Aggression, Occupation, Annihilation

Description

This groundbreaking book explores the interpretative potential and analytical capacity of the concept ‘fascist warfare’. Was there a specific type of war waged by fascist states? The concept encompasses not only the practice of violence at the front, but also war culture, the relationship between war and the fascist project, and the construction of the national community. Starting with the legacy of the First World War and using a transnational approach, this collection presents case studies of fascist regimes at war, spanning Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Francoist Spain, Croatia, and Imperial Japan. Themes include the idea of rapid warfare as a symbol of fascism, total war, the role of modern technology, the transfer of war cultures between regimes, anti-partisan warfare as a key feature, and the contingent nature and limits of fascist warfare. Front Matter ....Pages i-vii Introduction (Miguel Alonso, Alan Kramer, Javier Rodrigo)....Pages 1-23 From Great War to Fascist Warfare (Alan Kramer)....Pages 25-50 National Socialist Assessments of Global Fascist Warfare (1935–1938) (Sven Reichardt)....Pages 51-72 Civil War, Total War, Fascist War: Rebel Violence and Occupation Policies in the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) (Miguel Alonso)....Pages 73-95 Fascist Civil Warfare: Mussolini’s Wars in Spain and Italy, 1936–1945 (Javier Rodrigo)....Pages 97-118 Cultures of Total Annihilation? The German, Italian, and Japanese Armies During the Second World War (Amedeo Osti Guerrazzi)....Pages 119-142 Technology and Terror in Fascist Italy’s Counterinsurgency Operations: Ethiopia and Yugoslavia, 1936–1943 (Nicolas G. Virtue)....Pages 143-168 The Impact of the ‘China Experience’ on Japanese Warfare in Malaya and Singapore (Takuma Melber)....Pages 169-193 Fascist Warfare and the Axis Alliance: From Blitzkrieg to Total War (Daniel Hedinger)....Pages 195-220 The German War in the East: The Radical Variant of Fascist War (Jeff Rutherford)....Pages 221-240 The Evolution of Ustasha Mass Violence: Nation-Statism, Paramilitarism, Structure, and Agency in the Independent State of Croatia, 1941 (Lovro Kralj)....Pages 241-268 From the Milizia Fascista Albanese to the SS Division ‘Skanderbeg’: Between Imposing Fascist Ideology and Adapting Local Warfare (Franziska Anna Zaugg)....Pages 269-293 Back Matter ....Pages 295-336