Book Review of
Brigate Rosse
Far-Left Guerrillas in Italy, 1970-1988
Author: David Francois
Helion & Co.,Ltd.
Europe@War Series no. 15
ISBN: 978-1-914377-07-5
By Ray Mehlberger
Copyright: 2021
MSRP: $24.95
Europe@War Series no. 15
ISBN: 978-1-914377-07-5
By Ray Mehlberger
Copyright: 2021
MSRP: $24.95
HISTORY:
In the aftermath of the Second World War, Italy had the largest communist party of any Western European nation, with the extreme left of the political spectrum barred from participation in government, industrial and political- strifes were commonplace in the Italy of the 1960s.
Frequently resulting in violent clashes between the police and left-wing activists, lurking in the background, neo-fascists sought to stoke the flames with a series of murderous bombings designed to provoke a return to an authoritarian state
From this grew the Brigate Rosse – The Red Brigade – organizing themselves following the examples of the Latin American urban guerilla movements. The Brigate Rosse emerged in Trento in 1970, though their early activities were troubled by infighting between extremist and moderate wings of the movement.
Nevertheless, the movement spread to Rome, Genoa, and Venice by the mid 1970s, and began to diversify its activities during the following years. It became famous for several high-profile kidnappings of judges and industrialists. The kidnapping and murder of the Italian statesman Aldo Moro in 1978, and the kidnapping of U.S. Brigadier General James L. Dozier, the deputy Chief-of-staff for Southern European Land Forces of NATO in 1981.
Such actions caused a deep rift within the support and public sympathy, while prompting an intensive investigation and prosecution by Italian authorities. Many members were arrested and betrayed their comrades under interrogation: others were forced to flee abroad. Ultimately the Brigate Rosse was destroyed.
Drawing upon decades of research with the help of official documentation and the recollections of participants, Brigate Rosse is a detailed study of the major armed leftist movement that shook the fundamentals of the Italian state of the 1970s and 1980s.
THE BOOK:
Helion & Co.,LTD is based in England.
This book is soft-cover of 78 pages. Two pages are blank.
The cover art shows a black and white photo of a M113 APC of the 37th “Ravenna” Mechanized Brigade, Folgore Div. of the Italian Army, seen while deployed in Via Zamboni, in the university district of Bologna, on 11 March 1977.
At the bottom of the cover art there is a color side profile illustration of an Augusta built Bell AB.205 helicopter. It is overall dark navy-blue with a white roof. It has white “CARABINIERI” on its sides and white CC rounel 36 fuselage number.
The book contains 89 black and white photos and 3 color ones. There are 2 maps and 2 data lists included.
The book begins with ABBREVIATIONS and an INTRODUCTION.
The photos show:
Italian partisans, Police, neo-Nazis, vehicles, one aircraft, officers of the groups involved, an M8 armored car, the Lolta Coninus Group, Security Forces, the bombing of the bank and victims of it at Piazza A Fontana, Brigate Rosse (Red Brigade) troops, a robbery in Genoa, wreckage of the Italicus train that was bombed by neo-Nazis, demonstrations on the streets of Milan in April 1975 and in Bologna in 1977, 2 photos of the M113 and armed Proletarians for Communism.
There are 9 color profile illustrations in the book that show side views of:
The Augusta built Bell helicopter shown on the books cover (already described above), a Bell 206 helicopter with Police (also built by Augusta), a Bell 21 built by Augusta too, Giuseppe Memo firing his pistol, an Italian Carabinieri Sergeant, an officer of either the 2nd or 3rd Celere Unit, a Central Security Task Group infantryman, a Special Intervention infantryman and an Italian Army infantryman.
The end of the book has the BIBLIOGRAPHY, five pages of NOTES, ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS and ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
David Francois from France earned his PhD in Contemporary History at the University of Burgundy and specialized in studying militant communism, its military history and the relationship between politics and violence in contemporary history.
In 2000, he co-authored the Guide des archives de l’Internationale communiste, published by the French National Archives and the Maison des sciences de L’Homme in Dijon, He regularly contributes articles for various French military history magazines and is a regular contributor to the French History website L’autre côté de la colline.
This book will be of great interest to military historians. Unfortunately, not so much to modelers.
In the aftermath of the Second World War, Italy had the largest communist party of any Western European nation, with the extreme left of the political spectrum barred from participation in government, industrial and political- strifes were commonplace in the Italy of the 1960s.
Frequently resulting in violent clashes between the police and left-wing activists, lurking in the background, neo-fascists sought to stoke the flames with a series of murderous bombings designed to provoke a return to an authoritarian state
From this grew the Brigate Rosse – The Red Brigade – organizing themselves following the examples of the Latin American urban guerilla movements. The Brigate Rosse emerged in Trento in 1970, though their early activities were troubled by infighting between extremist and moderate wings of the movement.
Nevertheless, the movement spread to Rome, Genoa, and Venice by the mid 1970s, and began to diversify its activities during the following years. It became famous for several high-profile kidnappings of judges and industrialists. The kidnapping and murder of the Italian statesman Aldo Moro in 1978, and the kidnapping of U.S. Brigadier General James L. Dozier, the deputy Chief-of-staff for Southern European Land Forces of NATO in 1981.
Such actions caused a deep rift within the support and public sympathy, while prompting an intensive investigation and prosecution by Italian authorities. Many members were arrested and betrayed their comrades under interrogation: others were forced to flee abroad. Ultimately the Brigate Rosse was destroyed.
Drawing upon decades of research with the help of official documentation and the recollections of participants, Brigate Rosse is a detailed study of the major armed leftist movement that shook the fundamentals of the Italian state of the 1970s and 1980s.
THE BOOK:
Helion & Co.,LTD is based in England.
This book is soft-cover of 78 pages. Two pages are blank.
The cover art shows a black and white photo of a M113 APC of the 37th “Ravenna” Mechanized Brigade, Folgore Div. of the Italian Army, seen while deployed in Via Zamboni, in the university district of Bologna, on 11 March 1977.
At the bottom of the cover art there is a color side profile illustration of an Augusta built Bell AB.205 helicopter. It is overall dark navy-blue with a white roof. It has white “CARABINIERI” on its sides and white CC rounel 36 fuselage number.
The book contains 89 black and white photos and 3 color ones. There are 2 maps and 2 data lists included.
The book begins with ABBREVIATIONS and an INTRODUCTION.
The photos show:
Italian partisans, Police, neo-Nazis, vehicles, one aircraft, officers of the groups involved, an M8 armored car, the Lolta Coninus Group, Security Forces, the bombing of the bank and victims of it at Piazza A Fontana, Brigate Rosse (Red Brigade) troops, a robbery in Genoa, wreckage of the Italicus train that was bombed by neo-Nazis, demonstrations on the streets of Milan in April 1975 and in Bologna in 1977, 2 photos of the M113 and armed Proletarians for Communism.
There are 9 color profile illustrations in the book that show side views of:
The Augusta built Bell helicopter shown on the books cover (already described above), a Bell 206 helicopter with Police (also built by Augusta), a Bell 21 built by Augusta too, Giuseppe Memo firing his pistol, an Italian Carabinieri Sergeant, an officer of either the 2nd or 3rd Celere Unit, a Central Security Task Group infantryman, a Special Intervention infantryman and an Italian Army infantryman.
The end of the book has the BIBLIOGRAPHY, five pages of NOTES, ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS and ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
David Francois from France earned his PhD in Contemporary History at the University of Burgundy and specialized in studying militant communism, its military history and the relationship between politics and violence in contemporary history.
In 2000, he co-authored the Guide des archives de l’Internationale communiste, published by the French National Archives and the Maison des sciences de L’Homme in Dijon, He regularly contributes articles for various French military history magazines and is a regular contributor to the French History website L’autre côté de la colline.
This book will be of great interest to military historians. Unfortunately, not so much to modelers.
I want to sincerely thank Casemate Publishers for this review sample. Casemate is the N. American distributor of Helion & Co. Books and all Helion titles can be viewed on Casemate’s website at:
Recommended.