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Previous Events
Military History Circle - Reflections on the Italian Campaign, 1944-1945: Two Illustrated Lectures
12:45, 21 Nov 2008RUSI, Whitehall, London, SW1A 2ET
Link to map: multimap
About the event:
In this expansive presentation, James Holland will lecture on two key aspects of the Italian Campaign of 1944-45:
1: Mark Clark and the Battle for Rome: A Reassessment
Historians have not been kind to General Mark Clark, Commander of the US 5th Army, with regard to his capture of rome. He has been perceived to have been arrogant, prickly and obsessed with his own fame, and his decision to go against General Alexander's orders to drive VI Corps towards Valmontone and instead turn his forces north through the Alban Hills has been depicted as the prime example of his hubris, and to have cost the Allies dear. James Holland's research into this episode suggests a somewhat different view, which he will explain in this first of two lectures.
2: The Massacre on Monte Sole: An Avoidable Tragedy
The massacre of Italian civilians and the destruction of the Stella Rossa partisan brigade between 30 September and 2 October 1944 was the single worst civilian atrocity carried out by the Germans in Western Europe during the war. In this second short lecture, James Holland will explain what happened and why, and examine why it was that young German soldiers were able to act with such apparent cold-hearted brutality.
James Holland is a writer and historian. His first work of history, Fortress Malta: An Island Under Siege, 1940-43 (Orion), became a Sunday Times top-ten bestseller, and was followed by Together We Stand: North Africa 1942-1943 - Turning the Tide in the West. He has also published Heroes: The Greatest Generation and the Second World War , a collection of essays and in February this year published Italy's Sorrow: A Year of War 1944-1945. His next non-fiction project is the Battle of Britain. He has also published three wartime novels, the most recent, The Odin Mission, introducing a new fictional hero, Jack Tanner, in what will be a series of books following Tanner's and the British Army's progress through the war. He wrote and presented a film, Victory in Europe (2005), and has written for numerous newspapers and magazines.
This event is open to RUSI members only. to become a member please click here.
An optional £6 sandwich lunch shall be available from 1215.
To register please contact Ayesha Stout, Events Manager, RUSI
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