Book Review: Violence in Defeat. The Wehrmacht on German Soil, 1944-1945 by Bastiaan Willems

Abstract

the sources. While many of the views expressed towards Italy’s allies and enemies are those that might be expected, there is surprisingly frequent praise for the Soviet Union. Some prisoners even ‘discussed the merits of forming a “USSR Republic of Europe to beat the English”’ (p.77). Elsewhere, some reveal apparent instances of military action undertaken against France before the declaration of war in June 1940 (p.91). In another blow to the longstanding stereotype of ‘gli italiani brava gente’ (the popularised idea of the ‘good Italian’ in wartime), there is evidence of broad awareness among the cohort of atrocities committed in the Balkans (pp.94–7) and frequent expressions of antisemitism. This includes one particularly shocking example of open support for the ‘extermination’ of Jews (p.97). Henry also argues that the CSDIC evidence supports the views of historians such as Paul Corner and Emilio Gentile, who argue that not only was the Fascist Party already unpopular with many Italians by 1940 but that Mussolini himself was too, especially so by 1942. In this way, he disagrees with scholars such as Christopher Duggan who have argued that Mussolini retained his popularity for most of the war (p.149). In this well-written book, Henry has broadly succeeded in his aim of using this underutilized source material to challenge stereotypes and dispel myths regarding the Italian armed forces and Italy’s war. Italian servicemen are depicted as being capable of fighting hard and to the end (e.g. p.43), but also of casual brutality and support for organised atrocity. Henry also frequently does an effective job of linking the evidence from the CSDIC sources with relevant secondary works from both the English and Italian-language historiography and engaging with existing debates. There are, however, two caveats. First, while Henry frequently engages with the historiography, the depiction of the Anglophone literature as one which still broadly dismisses Italians as militarily incompetent and the war with Italy as a sideshow is not entirely accurate (pp.7–11). He cites James Sadkovich as a rare exception, but Sadkovich is made to seem rarer than is actually the case as Henry does not engage with the works of John Gooch or Bastian Matteo Scianna, for example. The second issue relates to the CSDIC sources. Henry makes a commendable effort to treat his sources critically and discusses their utility across the introduction and chapter two. He accepts that ‘In all, the 563 selected Italian POWs made up just 0.4 percent of the 157,000 servicemen who were interned in the United Kingdom during the SecondWorldWar.’ (p.43). This disparity in representation could be viewed as being even wider than this, however. The Italian Army alone, for instance, numbered somewhere in the region of 1.5 million men in June 1940, according to Giorgio Rochat. This is worth bearing in mind when considering the link between the source base and the conclusions offered. Notwithstanding these two issues, Henry has delivered a welcome addition to the still relatively limited Anglophone literature on Italy’s war that makes interesting use of hitherto under-utilized sources. It is an important contribution to the historiography for those interested in Italy’s war, the fascist period, and broader themes of war, armed forces, and society.