Author: Pierluigi Romeo di Colloredo Mels
Publisher: Soldiershop Publishing
ISBN: 8893276682
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 289
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Book Description
But what is wrong with this army if five divisions manage to be pulverized in two days? (Galeazzo Ciano, Diary, 11 December 1940). Fox killed in the open. (Telegram from Gen. Richard O’Connor, commander of the XIII Army Corps, to Gen. Archibal Wavell commander of the British FFAA in the Middle East, February 8, 1941) The defeat suffered in Egypt and Cyrenaica by the army of Marshal Rodolfo Graziani by the Western Desert Force, which culminated in the annihilation of the 10th Army in Beda Fomm in February 1941, constitutes the most serious defeat of the Italian army in the course of its history even worse than that which occurred on October 24, 1917 in the battle of Caporetto: an army of 150,000 men left in the hands of an enemy only 36,000 strong 133,298 prisoners, 420 tanks, 845 guns and 564 airplanes in the space of exactly two months , from 9 December 1940 to 9 February 1941, undergoing its strategic initiative and moral superiority. For Italy, the defeat in Cyrenaica was a severe downsizing and the end of the guerra parallela, with strategic subordination to the German Reich. But as for Caporetto, the Royal Army, far from being defeated, recovered immediately also and above all thanks to the help of the Third Reich and to the example provided by the Deutsches Afrika Korps units. The volume analyzes the forces on the field, the political pressures made by Rome on Graziani to push him to attack, and the military operations, from the Italian invasion of Egypt until the decisive battles of Bardia, Tobruk, el Mechili and Beda Fomm. From Sidi el Barrani to Beda Fomm has the objective to present a wiew of Wawell’s whirlwind victory from the other side of the hill. The Italian perspective.
Author: Richard Bosworth
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9781108406406
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 718
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Book Description
War is often described as an extension of politics by violent means. With contributions from twenty-eight eminent historians, Volume 2 of The Cambridge History of the Second World War examines the relationship between ideology and politics in the war's origins, dynamics and consequences. Part I examines the ideologies of the combatants and shows how the war can be understood as a struggle of words, ideas and values with the rival powers expressing divergent claims to justice and controlling news from the front in order to sustain moral and influence international opinion. Part II looks at politics from the perspective of pre-war and wartime diplomacy as well as examining the way in which neutrals were treated and behaved. The volume concludes by assessing the impact of states, politics and ideology on the fate of individuals as occupied and liberated peoples, collaborators and resistors, and as British and French colonial subjects.
Author: Sebastian Balfour
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134678061
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 283
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Book Description
Spain and the Great Powers in the Twentieth Centuryexamines the international context to, and influences on, Spanish history and politics from 1898 to the present day. Spanish history is necessarily international, with the significance of Spain's neutrality in the First World War and the global influences on the outcome of the Spanish Civil War. Taking the Defeat in the Spanish American war of 1898 as a starting point, the book includes surveys on: *the crisis of neutrality during the First World War *foreign policy under the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera *the allies and the Spanish Civil War *Nazi Germany and Franco's Spain *Spain and the Cold War *relations with the United States This book traces the important topic of modern Spanish diplomacy up to the present day
Author: John Gooch
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 164313549X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 489
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Book Description
A remarkable new history evoking the centrality of Italy to World War II, outlining the brief rise and triumph of the Fascists, followed by the disastrous fall of the Italian military campaign. While staying closely aligned with Hitler, Mussolini remained carefully neutral until the summer of 1940. At that moment, with the wholly unexpected and sudden collapse of the French and British armies, Mussolini declared war on the Allies in the hope of making territorial gains in southern France and Africa. This decision proved a horrifying miscalculation, dooming Italy to its own prolonged and unwinnable war, immense casualties, and an Allied invasion in 1943 that ushered in a terrible new era for the country. John Gooch's new history is the definitive account of Italy's war experience. Beginning with the invasion of Abyssinia and ending with Mussolini's arrest, Gooch brilliantly portrays the nightmare of a country with too small an industrial sector, too incompetent a leadership and too many fronts on which to fight. Everywhere—whether in the USSR, the Western Desert, or the Balkans—Italian troops found themselves against either better-equipped or more motivated enemies. The result was a war entirely at odds with the dreams of pre-war Italian planners—a series of desperate improvisations against an allied force who could draw on global resources, and against whom Italy proved helpless.
Author: John Carr
Publisher: Pen and Sword Military
ISBN: 1526765047
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 257
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Book Description
This WWII history examines the most consequential and hard-fought battle between Greek and Italian forces in Albania. On March 9th, 1941, the Italians launched their Spring Offensive, designed to stem four months of humiliating reverses. Watched by Mussolini himself, the operation’s objective was a pair of parallel valleys dominated by the Greek-held Hill 731. The Italian Eighth Corps, part of Geloso’s 11th Army, had the task of seizing the heights, spearheaded by 38 (Puglie) Division. Holding the position was the Greek 1 Division of II Corps, with 4 and 6 Division on the flanks. For seventeen days, after a massive artillery barrage, the Italians threw themselves against the Evzones on the hill—only to be repeatedly smashed with appalling losses. It was a merciless fight at close quarters, where bayonets held the place of honor but the battered Greeks held. Mussolini had wanted a spring victory to impress the Führer. Instead, the bloody debacle of Hill 731 could well have contributed to Hitler’s decision to postpone his invasion of Russia. John Carr sheds light on this consequential episode in the Mediterranean theater of operations.
Author: Charles V. P. Von Luttichau
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Ardennes, Battle of the, 1944-1945
Languages : en
Pages : 24
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Book Description
Author: John Gooch
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521856027
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 516
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Book Description
Study of the relationship between the military and foreign policies of Fascist Italy, 1922 to 1940.
Author: Allan R. Millett
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 9780044450542
Category : Armed Forces
Languages : en
Pages : 281
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Book Description
Author: Martin Blumenson
Publisher: Da Capo Press
ISBN: 0786749741
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 942
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Book Description
One of World War II's most brilliant and controversial generals, George S. Patton (1885-1945) fought in North Africa and Sicily, as commander of the Third Army, spearheaded the Allies' spectacular 1944-1945 sweep through France, Belgium, and Germany. Martin Blumenson is the only historian to enjoy unlimited access to the vast Patton papers. his many books include Masters of the Art of Command (available from Da Capo Press) and Patton: The Man Behind the Legend.
Author: Péter Mujzer
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472845633
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 81
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Book Description
On 26 June 1941, unidentified bombers attacked the Hungarian town of Kassa, prompting Hungary to join its Axis partners in Operation Barbarossa, Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union. Hungary's contribution to Barbarossa was designated the Carpathian Group, its most powerful component being the Mobile Corps, which fielded motorized rifle, cavalry, bicycle and light armoured troops. The Hungarians faced Soviet forces belonging to the Kiev Military District, deployed in four armies along a 940km-long front. On the defeated side in World War I, Hungary had seen its borders redrawn and its armed forces constrained by treaty, but was determined to recover territories lost to adjoining countries. When Hungary decided to participate in Operation Barbarossa, however, the Royal Hungarian Army was deployed in the Soviet Union and not against its neighbours. Meanwhile, the Red Army, while remaining among the most formidable armies of the era, had been seriously weakened by successive purges, its shortcomings exposed by the Winter War against Finland in 1939–40. During the opening battles (4–13 July), the Hungarian motorized rifle and armoured units clashed with the withdrawing Red Army forces. In the battle for Uman (15 July–8 August) the Hungarians blocked the Soviet troops' efforts to break out from encirclement. During the Hungarian defensive operation at the River Dniepr (30 August–6 October), counter-attacking Soviet units exerted heavy pressure on the defending Hungarians. Both sides would seek to draw lessons from these opening battles as the war in the East continued to rage into 1942. Fully illustrated, this book investigates the Hungarian and Soviet soldiers who fought in three battles of the Barbarossa campaign, casting new light on the role played by the forces of Nazi Germany's allies on the Eastern Front.
