The Italian War on the Eastern Front, 1941–1943: Operations, Myths and Memories

Description

The Italian Army’s participation in Hitler’s war against the Soviet Union has remained unrecognized and understudied. Bastian Matteo Scianna offers a wide-ranging, in-depth corrective. Mining Italian, German and Russian sources, he examines the history of the Italian campaign in the East between 1941 and 1943, as well as how the campaign was remembered and memorialized in the domestic and international arena during the Cold War. Linking operational military history with memory studies, this book revises our understanding of the Italian Army in the Second World War. Front Matter ....Pages i-xvi Introduction (Bastian Matteo Scianna)....Pages 1-18 Historiography: Past Problems and Recent Trends (Bastian Matteo Scianna)....Pages 19-37 The Italian Army Before the Second World War (1861–1940) (Bastian Matteo Scianna)....Pages 39-64 The guerra fascista—10 June 1940–25 July 1943 (Bastian Matteo Scianna)....Pages 65-85 The Italian Operations on the Eastern Front (1941) (Bastian Matteo Scianna)....Pages 87-117 The Italian Operations on the Eastern Front (1942) (Bastian Matteo Scianna)....Pages 119-149 The Battle on the Don, 11 December 1942–31 December 1943 (Bastian Matteo Scianna)....Pages 151-187 The Italian Combat Performance: ‘Chicken Led by Donkeys’? (Bastian Matteo Scianna)....Pages 189-227 Narratives About Victimhood: Evil Germans, Good Italian Occupiers and Evil Soviets? (Bastian Matteo Scianna)....Pages 229-266 Shaping the Myths: Memoirs, the Army and the Alpini (Bastian Matteo Scianna)....Pages 267-292 Contested Memories During the Cold War (Bastian Matteo Scianna)....Pages 293-327 Conclusion (Bastian Matteo Scianna)....Pages 329-335 Back Matter ....Pages 337-365