Books from Air Crash Po
This book is dedicated to the air war over Italy in the final months of the
war (January to May, 1945).
The air war in Italy
is presented on the basis of official Allied documentation.
Fifteenth Air Force, Twelfth Air Force, Desert Air Force: all
missions, bombings, bomber attacks in the cold and analytical perspective of
a chronology day by day. A deluge of bombs that upset
northern Italy paved the way for the Allied final offensive and contributed
decisively to the breakthrough of the Gothic Line and Liberation.
Book is published in Italian.
http://www.ibneditore.it/shop/the-final-round/
http://www.milistoria.it/Apps/WebObjects/Milistoria.woa/wa/XDirectAction/viewProduct?id=127771&lang=ita
Italian Version
ISBN: 9-788875-652791
Note the brown at the bottom and top. This is the Italian version.
English Version
ISBN: 9-788875-654429
Note the blue at the bottom and top. This is the English version.
"Between the spring and autumn of 1944, the Luftwaffe posed a constant
threat to the incursions of the M.A.A.F. (Mediterranean Allied Air Forces)
and losses in men and aircraft were great. Within a few months, between the
fall of 1944 and the end of hostilities, hundreds of allied aircraft did not
come back from their missions on targets in northern Italy. In most cases,
pilots on board aircraft were captured or killed in action. But on many
other occasions, the crews managed to evade capture thanks to the
collaboration of the civilian population and to the assistance provided by
the partisans who, especially in the Tuscan Emilia-Romagna Apennines, had
established a very efficient clandestine organization. With their help, many
air crews could even overcome the positions of the Gothic Line and return to
liberated territory. The authors present some of the most noteworthy
happenings that have been played by protagonists, on the one hand, American
and British aviators, and on the other hand, Italian partisans and
civilians. The events happened in different parts of the country:
Lazio, Tuscany, Emilia Romagna, Lombardy, Piedmont. The air crews
dealt mostly with peasants, humble and simple people who risked their lives
and had to hide, help, refresh these foreign soldiers who expressed
themselves in a language most incomprehensible and who literally 'dropped
from the sky' and knocked on their doors. The locals faced a difficult
choice. They could tell the German and Fascist military authorities of
the presence of the aviators. Or the locals could jeopare their lives
and try to help - somehow - these unknown aviators. In the vast majority of
cases, civilians opted for this second possibility. Remembering their
sacrifices and their sufferings, these pages are dedicated to them."
Book is published in Italian and English.
http://www.ibneditore.it/shop/behind-the-enemy-lines/
http://www.milistoria.it/Apps/WebObjects/Milistoria.woa/wa/XDirectAction/viewProduct?id=104759&lang=ita
"For the first time, a short and sad chapter in recent history in Brescia
was rebuilt on the basis of M.A.A.F. (Acronym for Mediterranean Allied Air
Forces) records found in US and British archives (e.g., NARA of College
Park, Maryland, AFHRA of Maxwell AFB, Alabama, and TNA of Kew Gardens,
London.) The work thus emerges in a new and different perspective with
respect to those who have, in the past, told the story of the air raids that
bombed Brescia in the eyes of those who suffered the bombings. Obviously,
the authors do not want to disregard or diminish the suffering and
destruction suffered by the civilian population of Brescia because of the
enemy air offensive during World War II. At about seventy years from the
facts, however, it is time to explain the reasons for the air strikes and to
contextualize those tragic events in the complex framework of allied
operations. All eleven the devastating "heavy" incursions are therefore
framed in the missions carried out by M.A.A.F. The first part of the book
presents the attacked targets, the structure of the M.A.A.F., and the
ordnance and the aircraft used by the Allies. In the second part of the
book, air strikes by bomb fighters are presented. The third and final
section is composed of a history of missions carried out by the Twelfth Air
Force on targets in the provincial territory."
Book is published in Italian.
http://www.lin.it/libro.asp?isbn=9788875652524&tipo=SCOLASTICA
http://www.milistoria.it/Apps/WebObjects/Milistoria.woa/wa/XDirectAction/viewProduct?id=91407&lang=ita
"Recently many books dedicated to the air war in Italy have been publshed.
They all, or almost all, tell of the rare air combat between the scattered
wards of the ANR and the Luftwaffe and the overwhelming Allied Air Force.
Many devote ample space to the devastating air bombardments that struck the
big Italian cities, such as Milan, Turin, Bologna, ... focusing in
particular on the incursions that caused the civilian casualties. An
example for everyone, the tremendous attack on the Treviso railway line on
April 7, 1944, which caused more than 1,600 deaths. With this work, the Air
Crash Po research group intends to fill a gap in our historiography and tell
the "real nature" of the aerial war on Italy: a war consisting of hundreds
of incursions carried out by bomb fighters, attacks by medium bombers,
hunting formations in armed reconnaissance missions, rail and road traffic
attacks, bridges, stations, depots, an infinite number of occasional targets
or "targets of opportunity." Air combat and raids on major cities were a
marginal aspect and represented a sort of iceberg tip of air operations. The
so-called tactical incursions dominated the scene between 1943 and 1945. The
authors, drawing on documents from US archives, intend to offer the reader a
complete picture of the aerial activity carried out on our country by the
MAAF in the period from 12 May to 25 August 1944."
Book is published in Italian.
http://www.milistoria.it/Apps/WebObjects/Milistoria.woa/wa/XDirectAction/viewProduct?id=112795&lang=ita