What do you think?
Rate this book
Target: Italy: The Secret War Against Mussolini 1940-1943
British intelligence had limited resources in fascist Italy, but still played a crucial role in the conflict there, not least when agent Dick Mallaby was plucked from imprisonment to undertake clandestine communications about the Italian surrender. Commissioned by the Cabinet Office and drawing on many previously classified documents, this is the official history of the Special Operations Executive in Italy, revealing missions as daring as a plot to assassinate Mussolini and plans to arm the Mafia.
464 pages, Hardcover
First published March 4, 2014
6 people are currently reading
93 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
April 28, 2014
Target Italy – On Target
As any student and graduate of history can tell you the field of study of World War Two is sodden with many books many the same as each other. Then we get University educators who write history books that are either very readable or as dry as a bone written for us graduates and just accessible for the general book reading public. Well I am pleased to announce that Target Italy is very readable written by one of Britain’s top modern historians Roderick Bailey of Oxford University. Roderick Bailey also happens to be an expert at the workings and operations of Churchill’s own Special Operations Executive.
When Italy entered the war on the Axis side the intelligence that the British had was either so far out of date not to count or just simply none existent. So from 1940 it was decided that intelligence operatives were needed on the ground in Italy, the only problem the British faces is that they had no boots on the ground. So from the air, sea the outside the British had to send operatives in to make contacts and gain intelligence while waging war on Mussolini and his fascists.
Roderick Bailey lies out the British attempts of the SOE in Italy from their beginnings in Italy to how their operations grew or were hampered, and he has interrogated the newly released archive material in Britain and Italy. He also opens up that at times it was more ‘Allo ‘Allo than Secret Army and secret battles. He also exposes the fact that the SOE were out of their depth at the duplicity and masters of deception in the Italians and were often fooled by them.
This book also highlights the story of Fortunato (Wilfred) Picchi who was the first Italian to volunteer for the British to go back to Italy and work with the SOE. There was only one problem for him, his back-story and cover was so week that he was easily exposed and shot as a traitor by the Italians.
We also learn that silk maps were better than paper maps and easier to conceal. Or that when requested container loads of equipment were dropped in to Italy from contacts who were later to be revealed to be fakes and using the weapons for their own purposes. This book also explains the delicate and quite dramatic negotiations that took place for the Italians to lay down their weapons against the Allies.
I found this book to be brilliantly researched, well written that at times could make you smile at the cock-ups, but more importantly the desperate and daring work of the SOE and without whom the Italian surrender may have taken longer to come about.
This is an excellent history of the SOE in Italy and I cannot recommend it highly enough – I just wish I could write and research as eloquently as Roderick Bailey.
As any student and graduate of history can tell you the field of study of World War Two is sodden with many books many the same as each other. Then we get University educators who write history books that are either very readable or as dry as a bone written for us graduates and just accessible for the general book reading public. Well I am pleased to announce that Target Italy is very readable written by one of Britain’s top modern historians Roderick Bailey of Oxford University. Roderick Bailey also happens to be an expert at the workings and operations of Churchill’s own Special Operations Executive.
When Italy entered the war on the Axis side the intelligence that the British had was either so far out of date not to count or just simply none existent. So from 1940 it was decided that intelligence operatives were needed on the ground in Italy, the only problem the British faces is that they had no boots on the ground. So from the air, sea the outside the British had to send operatives in to make contacts and gain intelligence while waging war on Mussolini and his fascists.
Roderick Bailey lies out the British attempts of the SOE in Italy from their beginnings in Italy to how their operations grew or were hampered, and he has interrogated the newly released archive material in Britain and Italy. He also opens up that at times it was more ‘Allo ‘Allo than Secret Army and secret battles. He also exposes the fact that the SOE were out of their depth at the duplicity and masters of deception in the Italians and were often fooled by them.
This book also highlights the story of Fortunato (Wilfred) Picchi who was the first Italian to volunteer for the British to go back to Italy and work with the SOE. There was only one problem for him, his back-story and cover was so week that he was easily exposed and shot as a traitor by the Italians.
We also learn that silk maps were better than paper maps and easier to conceal. Or that when requested container loads of equipment were dropped in to Italy from contacts who were later to be revealed to be fakes and using the weapons for their own purposes. This book also explains the delicate and quite dramatic negotiations that took place for the Italians to lay down their weapons against the Allies.
I found this book to be brilliantly researched, well written that at times could make you smile at the cock-ups, but more importantly the desperate and daring work of the SOE and without whom the Italian surrender may have taken longer to come about.
This is an excellent history of the SOE in Italy and I cannot recommend it highly enough – I just wish I could write and research as eloquently as Roderick Bailey.
June 21, 2018
Wonderful book that gives great details into the operations by SOE in Fascist Italy, an area that is largely forgotten in modern WWII scholarship. Mr. Bailey has done his research well and is able to highlight the brave men who sacrificed themselves to rid Italy of the disease the Mussolini infected it with, described both the success's and failures of the operations the SOE completed, and was able to analyze why the missions were done, while dispelling myths that have been born from the era. A wonderful piece of history that is going into my favorite histories of WWII. A+
August 18, 2020
4.5 stars.
Fascinating read and surprisingly enjoyable considering the level of detail involved. I knew nothing of Italy in the war, and other than MI6/MI5, knew almost nothing of spy agencies either. I've learnt a lot from this and I appreciate the astounding effort the author went into collating so much research into such a readable book.
I found it surprising, sometimes comical (SIM deceiving SOE!), but most of all heartbreaking—which I did not expect. All those good men and women, usually ordinary people chosen simply because they had the nerve and knew Italian, lost to history in nameless graves or empty fields, shot in the back, tortured, sent to concentration camps; while their families were left in the dark about their final, lonely moments. It upset me.
So much embarrassing and terrible mishandling by SOE and M16. This ain't like James Bond.
To commit to something where you're much more likely to die than live, even if it's something you greatly believe in, is a little hard to understand. To parachute into enemy territory with hardly any training ... All I can do is wonder how they felt at the time, and how they felt when the enemy eventually got their hands on them. Those final stark moments ...
Fascinating read and surprisingly enjoyable considering the level of detail involved. I knew nothing of Italy in the war, and other than MI6/MI5, knew almost nothing of spy agencies either. I've learnt a lot from this and I appreciate the astounding effort the author went into collating so much research into such a readable book.
I found it surprising, sometimes comical (SIM deceiving SOE!), but most of all heartbreaking—which I did not expect. All those good men and women, usually ordinary people chosen simply because they had the nerve and knew Italian, lost to history in nameless graves or empty fields, shot in the back, tortured, sent to concentration camps; while their families were left in the dark about their final, lonely moments. It upset me.
So much embarrassing and terrible mishandling by SOE and M16. This ain't like James Bond.
To commit to something where you're much more likely to die than live, even if it's something you greatly believe in, is a little hard to understand. To parachute into enemy territory with hardly any training ... All I can do is wonder how they felt at the time, and how they felt when the enemy eventually got their hands on them. Those final stark moments ...
June 4, 2019
I stretched my rating on this book to give it 4 stars because the scope of SOE operations against Mussolini's Italy was much more limited, and thus less dramatic, than the SOE operations in Western Europe. However, I felt it deserved a good rating based on the author's clear and easy-to-read style, as well as the impressive research he had done, delving into US, British and Italian records found not only in archives but in other sources. It is a somewhat sad tale, however, as practically all attempts at sending agents into Italy, Sardinia and Sicily failed, usually due to carelessness and poor planning by the SOE staff. Similar to the sad tale of SOE in Western Europe, the courageous volunteers ended up losing their lives as they were quickly caught and executed. The author has done a worthy job of tracking down their stories and helping to ensure their sacrifices are not forgotten.
June 3, 2024
Well written and accessible book and benefits from being an "official" history but very much skims over the post-armistice period unfortunately
March 17, 2016
An interesting essay on some little-known events that took place during, and especially at the end of the Second World War, namely the activities that eventually led to the surrender of Italy, the Armistice and Italy's change of front. Events by their nature poorly understood, as having to do with intelligence activities, and witnessed in confidential documents until a few years ago.
Although it is well documented and very well written, the book ends up being unintentionally funny, especially when read by an Italian, because reading through this we learn that the famous secret service of His Majesty, and especially the branch intended for the supervision of activities on the Italian territory, used to be well-meaning naive, completely unaware of both the territory and the language, and then teased for years by the fascist secret services, capable of inventing non-existent partisan organizations and acts of sabotage, and, indeed, to be foraging for money and explosives directly by the British. Not to mention that, through double agents, fascist secret services managed to get their hands on some authentic patriots who tried to get in touch with the English, one among all Adriano Olivetti. It seems that in fact the real work of changing the attitude of the Italian people, to make it conducive to surrender, were rather made by the heavy aerial bombardment that extenuated the population up to the time of the surrender itself.
An interesting read and recommended to all lovers of history.
Thank Faber and Faber Ltd and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
Un interessante saggio che tratta di alcune vicende poco conosciute avvenute nel corso, e soprattutto alla fine, della seconda guerra mondiale, vale a dire le attività che hanno alla fine portato alla resa dell'Italia, all'Armistizio e al suo cambiamento di fronte. Vicende per loro natura poco conosciute, in quanto aventi a che fare con attività di intelligence, e testimoniate in documenti secretati fino a pochi anni fa.
Nonostante sia documentatissimo e molto ben scritto, il libro finisce per essere involontariamente comico, soprattutto se letto da un'italiana, perché attraverso questa lettura si apprende che i famosi servizi segreti di Sua Maestà Britannica, e in special modo la branca destinata alla supervisione delle attività sul territorio italiano, si servivano di benintenzionati sprovveduti, del tutto all'oscuro sia del territorio che della lingua, e per questo menati per il naso per anni dai servizi segreti fascisti, capaci di inventare organizzazioni partigiane e atti di sabotaggio del tutto inesistenti, e, addirittura, di farsi foraggiare di soldi ed esplosivi direttamente dai britannici. Senza contare che, tramite agenti doppi, i servizi segreti fascisti riuscirono a mettere le mani su alcuni autentici patrioti che cercavano di mettersi in contatto con gli inglese, uno fra tutti Adriano Olivetti. Pare che insomma il vero lavoro di cambiare l'atteggiamento del popolo italiano, fino a renderlo favorevole a una resa, siano stati piuttosto i pesanti bombardamenti aerei che sfiancarono la popolazione fino al momento della resa vera e propria.
Una lettura interessante e consigliabile a tutti gli appassionati di storia.
Ringrazio Faber and Faber Ltd e Netgalley per avermi fornito una copia gratuita in cambio di una recensione onesta.
Although it is well documented and very well written, the book ends up being unintentionally funny, especially when read by an Italian, because reading through this we learn that the famous secret service of His Majesty, and especially the branch intended for the supervision of activities on the Italian territory, used to be well-meaning naive, completely unaware of both the territory and the language, and then teased for years by the fascist secret services, capable of inventing non-existent partisan organizations and acts of sabotage, and, indeed, to be foraging for money and explosives directly by the British. Not to mention that, through double agents, fascist secret services managed to get their hands on some authentic patriots who tried to get in touch with the English, one among all Adriano Olivetti. It seems that in fact the real work of changing the attitude of the Italian people, to make it conducive to surrender, were rather made by the heavy aerial bombardment that extenuated the population up to the time of the surrender itself.
An interesting read and recommended to all lovers of history.
Thank Faber and Faber Ltd and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
Un interessante saggio che tratta di alcune vicende poco conosciute avvenute nel corso, e soprattutto alla fine, della seconda guerra mondiale, vale a dire le attività che hanno alla fine portato alla resa dell'Italia, all'Armistizio e al suo cambiamento di fronte. Vicende per loro natura poco conosciute, in quanto aventi a che fare con attività di intelligence, e testimoniate in documenti secretati fino a pochi anni fa.
Nonostante sia documentatissimo e molto ben scritto, il libro finisce per essere involontariamente comico, soprattutto se letto da un'italiana, perché attraverso questa lettura si apprende che i famosi servizi segreti di Sua Maestà Britannica, e in special modo la branca destinata alla supervisione delle attività sul territorio italiano, si servivano di benintenzionati sprovveduti, del tutto all'oscuro sia del territorio che della lingua, e per questo menati per il naso per anni dai servizi segreti fascisti, capaci di inventare organizzazioni partigiane e atti di sabotaggio del tutto inesistenti, e, addirittura, di farsi foraggiare di soldi ed esplosivi direttamente dai britannici. Senza contare che, tramite agenti doppi, i servizi segreti fascisti riuscirono a mettere le mani su alcuni autentici patrioti che cercavano di mettersi in contatto con gli inglese, uno fra tutti Adriano Olivetti. Pare che insomma il vero lavoro di cambiare l'atteggiamento del popolo italiano, fino a renderlo favorevole a una resa, siano stati piuttosto i pesanti bombardamenti aerei che sfiancarono la popolazione fino al momento della resa vera e propria.
Una lettura interessante e consigliabile a tutti gli appassionati di storia.
Ringrazio Faber and Faber Ltd e Netgalley per avermi fornito una copia gratuita in cambio di una recensione onesta.
January 21, 2015
Being someone with little knowledge on the subject, this book intrigued me. I have always wanted to further my knowledge of British relations with Italy and this helped me to do so. I found it insightful and touching at times. However, I do wish I had more prior knowledge before reading this book as it would have enhanced my reading of it.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews