A Chill in the Air

A Chill in the Air PDF Author: Iris Origo
Publisher: New York Review of Books
ISBN: 1681372657
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
This recently discovered “trenchant, intelligent” follow-up to the British expatriate’s classic memoir, War in Val d’Orcia, chronicles life in Italy in the year leading up to WW2 (New Yorker). This insightful diary provides a vivid, ground-level account of how Mussolini decided on a course of action that would devastate his country and ultimately destroy his regime. In 1939 it was not a foregone conclusion that Mussolini would enter World War II on the side of Hitler. Though the British-born Origo lived with her Italian husband on an estate in a remote part of Tuscany, she was supremely well-connected and regularly in touch with intellectual and diplomatic circles in Rome, where her godfather, William Phillips, was the American ambassador. Her diary documents the Fascist government’s growing infatuation with Nazi Germany as Hitler’s armies marched triumphantly across Europe, and the campaign of propaganda and intimidation that was mounted in support of its new aims. The book ends with the birth of Origo’s daughter and Origo’s decision to go to Rome to work with prisoners of war at the Italian Red Cross. A Chill in the Air offers an indispensable record of Italy at war as well as a thrilling story of a formidable woman’s transformation from observer to actor at a great historical turning point.

A Chill in the Air

A Chill in the Air PDF Author: Iris Origo
Publisher: New York Review of Books
ISBN: 1681372657
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
This recently discovered “trenchant, intelligent” follow-up to the British expatriate’s classic memoir, War in Val d’Orcia, chronicles life in Italy in the year leading up to WW2 (New Yorker). This insightful diary provides a vivid, ground-level account of how Mussolini decided on a course of action that would devastate his country and ultimately destroy his regime. In 1939 it was not a foregone conclusion that Mussolini would enter World War II on the side of Hitler. Though the British-born Origo lived with her Italian husband on an estate in a remote part of Tuscany, she was supremely well-connected and regularly in touch with intellectual and diplomatic circles in Rome, where her godfather, William Phillips, was the American ambassador. Her diary documents the Fascist government’s growing infatuation with Nazi Germany as Hitler’s armies marched triumphantly across Europe, and the campaign of propaganda and intimidation that was mounted in support of its new aims. The book ends with the birth of Origo’s daughter and Origo’s decision to go to Rome to work with prisoners of war at the Italian Red Cross. A Chill in the Air offers an indispensable record of Italy at war as well as a thrilling story of a formidable woman’s transformation from observer to actor at a great historical turning point.

Swedish Volunteers in the Russo-Finnish Winter War, 1939-1940

Swedish Volunteers in the Russo-Finnish Winter War, 1939-1940 PDF Author: Martina Sprague
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786457538
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 261

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Book Description
Sandwiched between Nazi Germany and the "Russian Bear," Sweden walked a diplomatic tightrope on if and how it should support Finland during the Russo-Finnish Winter War. Social and political forces motivated the Swedish leadership to promote neutrality and avoid official military engagement, while at the same time the Swedish Volunteer Corps comprised the largest volunteer combat force (more than 8,200 strong) in any modern war. This book discusses the political background of the 1939-1940 Winter War; setbacks the volunteers suffered due to weather and terrain; and the ever-present fear that war would come to the Scandinavian Peninsula.

A World Gone Mad

A World Gone Mad PDF Author: Astrid Lindgren
Publisher: Pushkin Press
ISBN: 1782272321
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 203

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Book Description
A civilian, a mother, and a writer's unique account of a world devastated by conflict 'A rare glimpse of life in neutral Sweden and an insight into the dark setting that created her best-known work' FT Before she became internationally known for her children's books, Astrid Lindgren was an aspiring author living in Stockholm with her family at the outbreak of The Second World War. In these diaries, Lindgren emerges as a morally courageous critic of violence and war, as well as a deeply sensitive and astute observer of world affairs. Alongside political events, she includes delightful vignettes of domestic life, moments of personal crisis, and reveals the origins of Pippi Longstocking - soon to become one of the most famous and beloved children's books of the twentieth century.

War Diaries 1939 1945

War Diaries 1939 1945 PDF Author: Alan Brooke Alanbrooke (Viscount)
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520239029
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 830

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Book Description
The first complete and unexpurgated publication of the diaries of Lord Alanbrooke, who during World War II was Chief of the Imperial General Staff of the British Empire and Churchill's most prominent advisor -- and rival.

Blitz Diary

Blitz Diary PDF Author: Mike Brown
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 075246275X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 178

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Book Description
The historian Carol Harris has collected together a remarkable series of accounts from the war's darkest days, with heart-warming stories of survival, perseverance, solidarity and bravery, the preservation of which becomes increasingly important as the Blitz fades from living memory. War with Germany seemed increasingly likely throughout the 1930s. The British Government and the general population believed that bombs and poison gas would be dropped on civilians in major towns and cities with the aim of terrifying them into surrendering. Today the Blitz, far from breaking civilian morale, is seen as achieving the opposite; it helped galvanise public opinion to carry on fighting the war. But in 1937, preparations to protect the population were hopelessly inadequate, and the British government was far from confident that people would respond in this way.

Diary from the Years of Occupation, 1939-44

Diary from the Years of Occupation, 1939-44 PDF Author: Zygmunt Klukowski
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 408

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Book Description
A rare picture by a Polish physician whose diary depicted how noncombatants coped with life in German-occupied eastern Poland.

American Airpower Comes Of Age—General Henry H. “Hap” Arnold’s World War II Diaries Vol. II [Illustrated Edition]

American Airpower Comes Of Age—General Henry H. “Hap” Arnold’s World War II Diaries Vol. II [Illustrated Edition] PDF Author: Gen. Henry H. “Hap.” Arnold
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
ISBN: 1786251523
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 927

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Book Description
Includes the Aerial Warfare In Europe During World War II illustrations pack with over 180 maps, plans, and photos. Gen Henry H. “Hap.” Arnold, US Army Air Forces (AAF) Chief of Staff during World War II, maintained diaries for his several journeys to various meetings and conferences throughout the conflict. Volume 1 introduces Hap Arnold, the setting for five of his journeys, the diaries he kept, and evaluations of those journeys and their consequences. General Arnold’s travels brought him into strategy meetings and personal conversations with virtually all leaders of Allied forces as well as many AAF troops around the world. He recorded his impressions, feelings, and expectations in his diaries. Maj Gen John W. Huston, USAF, retired, has captured the essence of Henry H. Hap Arnold—the man, the officer, the AAF chief, and his mission. Volume 2 encompasses General Arnold’s final seven journeys and the diaries he kept therein.

The War Diary

The War Diary PDF Author: Fedor von Bock
Publisher: Schiffer Pub Limited
ISBN: 9780764300752
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 608

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Book Description
The Von Bock memoirs, which appear here for the first time, allow the reader to see the entire drama of the Second World War through the eyes of one of Germany's most important military commanders. After the attacks on Poland and Western Europe, campaigns he helped bring to a succesful conclusion, von Bock became Commander-in-Chief of Army Group Center which carried out the main drive on Moscow during Operation Barbarossa and brought the Red Army to the verge of collapse in the great battles of encirclement. Hitler relieved von Bock when the German offensive bogged down during the winter of 1941/1942. After he returned as Commander-in-Chief of Army Group South, von Bock was eventually placed in temporary retirement when he critized Hitler's division of forces against Stalingrad and the Caucasus-the road to castrophe began. Army commanders like Hoth, Guderian, Kluge and Paulus served under Generalfeldmarschall Fedor von Bock, while at his side stood his nephew Henning von Tresckow, who led the most active resistance movement against Hitler, and Carl-Hans von Hardenberg, a friend and advisor of Stauffenberg. Their efforts to win over von Bock failed, yet the Generalfeldmarschall tolerated the pronounced resistance sentiments among his staff, and even became privy to the attempted assissination of Hitler on July 20, 1944. This book allows us to reassess Fedor von Bock, whose complex personality is revealed by his diary entries, and by the biographical sketches by editor Klaus Gerbet.

War in Val D'Orcia

War in Val D'Orcia PDF Author: Iris Origo
Publisher: Allison & Busby
ISBN: 0749040548
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
It is quite impossible to attach importance to material possessions now. All that one still clings to is a few vital affections' Iris Origo, October 1943. Marchesa Iris Origo and her husband had been settled at their rural estate of La Foce since 1924. When the Second World War broke out Origo, an Englishwoman married to an Italian landowner, had divided loyalties. But as the war dragged on and the hostilities escalated, the small community of Val d'Orcia found themselves helping evacuees, orphans, refugees, prisoners of war and soldiers from both sides, concerned less with who was fighting whom than caring for those who needed their aid. Origo kept her diary throughout this time, when the risk of betrayal was a fact of life and the penalty for helping the enemy would result in death. Even with German troops occupying her manor house, she wrote at night about her valiant attempts to shelter refugees, burying her diary in the garden each morning. The result is a book which has become a classic, an affirmation in itself of courage and resistance, and an unsentimental, compelling story of the trials and tragedies of wartime.

The Berlin Diaries 1940-45

The Berlin Diaries 1940-45 PDF Author: Marie Vassiltchikov
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0712665803
Category : Anti-Nazi movement
Languages : en
Pages : 366

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Book Description
The author became sickened by the brutal and repressive nature of Nazi rule which overshadowed every aspect of her life. She became involved in the Resistance and the diaries vividly describe her part in the drama and its aftermath.