List Price: $18.50
Save: $5.48 (30%)

$13.02 + $3.99 shipping

Only 1 left in stock - order soon.

Ships from and sold by HappyTime123.

Turn on 1-Click ordering for this browser

Ship to:

Select a shipping address:

Buy Used

$5.98

+ $0.00 shipping

Used: Good | Details

Sold by Discover-Books

Turn on 1-Click ordering for this browser

Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See this image

War In Italy, 1943-1945: A Brutal Story Paperback – March 22, 1996

by Richard Lamb (Author)

14 customer reviews

See all 8 formats and editions Hide other formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Hardcover

"Please retry"

—

$33.00

$4.00

Paperback

"Please retry"

$13.02

$8.89

$2.49

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.

War In Italy, 1943-1945: A Brutal Story

$13.02 + $3.99 shipping Only 1 left in stock - order soon. Ships from and sold by HappyTime123.

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.

Rick Atkinson

905

Paperback
$15.92
James Holland

19

Hardcover
97 offers from $2.29

What other items do customers buy after viewing this item?

The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 (The Liberation Trilogy) Paperback

Rick Atkinson

905

$15.92
Italy's Sorrow: A Year of War, 1944-1945 Hardcover

James Holland

19
97 offers from $2.29
The Other Italy: The Italian Resistance in World War II Hardcover

Maria De Blasio Wilhelm

9
29 offers from $4.66
A Travel Guide to World War II Sites in Italy: Museums, Monuments, and Battlegrounds Paperback

Anne Leslie Saunders

15

$8.99

Special offers and product promotions

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Based in part on newly opened Italian archives, Lamb's review of the final two years of WW II from the Italian viewpoint offers several surprises. Chronicling the atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis against Italian civilians, the persecution of Italian Jews and the widespread slaughter of surrendering Italian soldiers, he also dwells on the attempted annexation of northwest Italy by de Gaulle and of northeast Italy by Tito (Lamb argues that the Yugoslavs treated the Italians more brutally than had the Germans). He documents as well the significant contributions of the Royalist Army to the Allied cause in the final months of the war, showing how the performance of Italian troops in battle earned the confidence of British and American generals alike. In a minor but dramatic passage, Lamb shows how extraordinarily helpful Italian civilians were to escaping Allied POWs, often risking their lives to provide shelter and share sparse rations. The book includes a clarifying analysis of the Salo Republic, the Fascist puppet regime set up under Mussolini by Hitler, and Il duce 's frenzied but unsuccessful efforts to protect his countrymen from Nazi tyranny. Lamb ( Montgomery in Europe ) served with the British Eighth Army in Italy during the period under discussion. Photos.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

This history of the Italian campaign in World War II justifies its subtitle. Thanks to vigorous German defense and less-than-skilled Allied strategy, the campaign went on for two interminable years, during which Italy was ravaged by both sides. The Germans added quite a tally of atrocities against civilians (for which Lamb considers the much-praised field marshal Kesselring fully responsible), and a large part of the Italian resistance effort turned into a civil war between Communist and non-Communist factions. Lamb recounts all of this and more (including papal efforts to hide thousands of Jews), although thematically rather than strictly chronologically, and he speaks with the authority of a veteran of the campaign and a lifelong student of Italian culture. If at times he seems too concerned to present Italy as victim, too much of previous Anglo-American coverage of the war has barely spoken of the Italians at all. Roland Green --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product details

Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: Da Capo Press; 1st Da Capo Press ed edition (March 22, 1996)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0306806886
ISBN-13: 978-0306806889
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.9 x 8.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 14 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,571,704 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #22464 in Books > History > Military > World War II

Would you like to tell us about a lower price?
If you are a seller for this product, would you like to suggest updates through seller support?

NO_CONTENT_IN_FEATURE

Customer reviews

2.4 out of 5 stars

5 star		29%
4 star		7%
3 star		0%
2 star		7%
1 star		57%

Write a customer review

See all verified purchase reviews

Top customer reviews

I gave up at page 112

ByJames Louison January 13, 2006

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This book has a very confused time line. I read the book up to page 112 and the author only talks about Mussolini and Hitler's relationship, the Italian and German Generals and the politics. There is only implied mention of what is going on with the Allies and I don't remember Patton or Montgomery being mentioned in the first 112 pages.

The book would probably appeal to someone who wanted to know the details of the politics going on inside Italy and between Italy and Germany. I was looking for a more comprehensive description of events with a single continuous timeline.

11 comment 7 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Difficult read

ByJohn Emmitteon November 29, 2013

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This book is a series of statements strung together in extraordinary detail. It could be summarized in 1/3 of the pages or made into a half dozen books. Simply too much detail for a comfortable read.

0Comment 2 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

A waste of paper and time

Byonemanforallon October 6, 2008

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Most students of history, including those with degrees (which I doubt Mr. Lamb has) find the various topics related to World War II fascinating for a number of reasons. As a serious student of history, I was particularly drawn to this book because of the title.

I expected a frank, objective historical account with a minimum of organization and coherence. Instead, I found a boring, repetitive, disorganized, personalized account full of nursery-style blasts and outbursts against individuals and groups of people.

Mr. Lamb is supposedly a respected "historian" yet he violates the first golden rule of historical analysis by getting emotionally involved and showing his personal vendetta against the Germans and Fascist Italians. His diatribe of subjective remarks and unprofessional terms pop up here and there, amidts supposed facts so the reader is often fooled into believing the whole paragraph or chapter as part of an honest, objective account based on personal experience (Mr. Lamb served as a soldier in Italy fighting against the Axis) as well as research and documentation.

Instead, one comes across terms such as "the hated Germans", the "Brutal Kesselring". In regards to Croats, he writes the "criminal Pavelic" or "Ante Pavelic, the terrorist" leader of Croatia. Mussolini's letter to Hitler is called "pathetic" and this goes on as I have only reached the first third of the book. I can say in all honesty I am bored with Mr. Lamb's antics and tactics to deceive the reader in his one-sided English propaganda. Apparently, all fascist Italians were "bad" and all those who sided with Badoglio or the communists were "good". One could expect a more intelligent debate from a 12 year old writing a dissertation.

Mr. Lamb's black and white subjectivity comes to light when he conveniently brushes aside the murder of more than 60,000 Italian civilians by the carpet bombing tactics of the British and American air-forces, and calls the execution of "franc-tireurs" terrorists "criminal" and yet identifies communist saboteurs who shot helpless soldiers in the back while unarmed "patriots". Naturally, as a typical chauvinistic
Englishman blinded by his own obedience to Queen and country (the same that subjected one fourth of the world to tyrannical rule for centuries) and by very typical English arrogance, Kesselring's decision to treat saboteurs and partisans as criminals was an inexcusable war crime, while Churchill's speech to the commons in regards to charring and flattening Italy from end to end should she stay in the Axis was an act of "liberation".

Other than Mr. Lamb's amateurish writing style and obvious bias which stems no doubt from a deep-rooted inferiority complex towards his opponents in the war, I see a degree of emotional balance that should perhaps be treated before another such "historical account" is offered to the public.

In short, this book, though discusses the crucial episode of WWII that dealt with the Italian campaign, is a complete waste of time and a total zero as far as objectivity and accuracy are concerned. Ironically, Mr Lamb doesn't seem to understand the difference between brigades, regiments and divisions though he served in the war. This should be an indication of his credibility and accuracy as a historian.

99 comments 8 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Nothing is our fault.

Bymasison.on November 28, 2011

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This book is not worth the read. It is lots of pages, saying that the Italians, which I am one, were duped into making bad decisions. A long denial!

11 comment One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Topical history of Italy's involvement in the last half of World War II

ByDavid W. Nicholason December 3, 2014

Format: Paperback

This is an odd book. The author chose to cover everything *not* directly involving the fighting in Italy during World War II, or more properly he decided to cover the Italians themselves, and their part in the last 2 years of the war. The result is an odd, topical book (there's no narrative really, the chapters dealing with topics rather than series of events) covering both sides of the war of the Italians.

When Mussolini was deposed and Italy surrendered, there was great confusion about how the surrender would be handled, and what would happen to the Italian army after the surrender. Many Italian officers wanted to change sides and fight to regain "honor" but the enlisted personnel mostly wanted to go home, being very weary of fighting a war they never understood in the first place. In point of fact the army dissolved, and a continuing theme throughout the book is that no matter how much Italian Army officers of various political orientations (from Fascists to anti-Fascists) insisted that their men were ready and eager to fight, the minute the troops were on Italian soil and close to the front they tended to melt into the hills, the men making for home by the shortest route.

This book contains chapters on the political situation in Mussolini's "republic" in Northern Italy, the Royalist government which joined the Allies, and things like the armies recruited by each government. The author also has a chapter dealing with war crimes, and several dealing with the Partisans, and also a chapter dealing with border disputes with both Yugoslavia and France. The author has a point of view, and he makes his opinions pretty clear. He doesn't for instance like Anthony Eden, and he thinks Churchill was a 19th-century romantic who was too attached to the specter of royalty (he's probably right). He thinks poorly of some German soldiers (notably Kesselring, who usually gets off relatively lightly) and has mixed views of individuals like Mussolini.

The result isn't the easiest book to read. There's a lot of material here involving war crimes, both of civilians being rounded up and shot and of prisoners being executed without trial or reason. You get a fair amount of information involving the various issues that came up during the war, though, and I found some of it pretty interesting.