Italian Partisans and British Forces in the Second World War: Working with the Enemy

Description

This book proposes a significant new interpretation of the relations between Italian partisans and British forces during the Italian campaign of 1943-1945. The core of the argument challenges many assumptions that are today still present both in Italian and in the Anglophone historiography on the subject. In current historiography, the debate is still ongoing as to whether the British were a hostile force to the Italian Resistance, trying to weaken it to better control it, or a genuine and committed ally. Instead of a clear-cut and artificial dichotomy between the 'Italians' and the 'British' this book posits the idea that lines were often blurred, and relations existed on a scale that included lots of grey and overlapping areas. Thanks to an original approach that examines the Italo-British interaction from a point of view as close as possible to the ‘action’, it proposes a new interpretation based on the way the British image was cast in Italy. Politics is left in the background in favour of an analysis of the concrete problems and difficulties that Italians and the British had to face when working together and how these processes influenced the image of Great Britain in Italy in the following decades. This produces a final interpretation that enriches current historiography and pushes forward our understanding of the relationship between Italian partisans and British forces. Acknowledgements Contents Abbreviations Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Where It All Began Opposing Fascism War Returns Spies, Thugs and Patriots Discordant Allies The Englishman Who Fell from the Sky 8 September: Resistance and Civil War Chapter 3: Fieldwork Setting Italy Ablaze Tightening the Belt: Airdrops Size and Aim Politics, or the Lack of Thereof British Liaison Missions: A Reassessment Chapter 4: Propaganda Too Much Optimism and a Rude Awakening Competition Italy: A Hostile Environment Between a Rock and a Hard Place: The British Propaganda Machine Multiple Solutions to Multiple Problems British Propaganda in Italy: An Evaluation Chapter 5: The Long Liberation The First Steps Rome and Beyond The Long Winter of 1944–1945 The Last Months of War Liberation The Aftermath Chapter 6: Conclusions: The British in Italy—A Matter of Image Bibliography Primary Secondary Index