Imperial War Museum (Department of Documents), London
‘No Pipes or Drums’ Memoirs of J. McCaffery
Papers of Major-General Sir C. McV. Gubbins
Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King’s College, London
Paper of Lieutenant-Colonel Count J. A. Dobrski
Magdalen College, Oxford
Papers of Sir Douglas Dodds-Parker
Newspapers and Periodicals
Corriere della Sera, La Sera–Il Secolo, the Daily Telegraph, the Evening Standard, The New York Times, The Times
Published works
Books
Adriano, P., L’intrigo di Berna, Mondadori: Milan, 2010
Aga Rossi, E., L’inganno reciproco: L’armistizio tra l’Italia e gli Angloamericani del settembre 1943, Ministero per i Beni Culturali e Ambientali: Rome, 1993
Amè, Cesare, Guerra segreta in Italia, Gherardo Casini Editore: Rome, 1954
Bailey, R., Target: Italy – The Secret War Against Mussolini, 1940–1943: The Official History of SOE Operations in Fascist Italy, Faber and Faber: London, 2014
Barneschi, G., Balvano 1944. Indagine su un disastro rimosso, LEG: Gorizia, 2014
Barneschi, R., Frau Von Weber, Vita e morte di Mafalda di Savoia, Rusconi, 1982
——, Elena di Savoia. Storia e segreti di un matrimonio reale, Rusconi, 1986
Beevor, J. G., SOE Recollections and Reflections 1940–1945, Bodley Head: London, 1981
Berrettini, M., La Gran Bretagna e l’antifascismo italiano: diplomazia clandestine, intelligence, operazioni speciali, 1940-1943, La Lettere: Florence, 2010
Bolla, N., Il segreto di due re, Rizzoli: Milan, 1951
Butcher, Harry Cecil, Three Years with Eisenhower, Mondadori: Milan, 1948
Carboni, G., Memorie segrete, 1935-1948: Più che il dovere, Parenti: Florence, 1955
Castellano, Giuseppe, Come firmai l’armistizio di Cassibile, Mondadori: Milan, 1945
——, La Guerra Continua, Rizzoli: Milan, 1963
——, Roma Kaputt, Gherardo Casini Editore: Rome, 1967
Churchill, W.S., The Second World War. Volume V: Closing The Ring, Cassell: London, 1951
Corvo, M., The OSS in Italy, 1942-1945: A Personal Memoir, Praeger: New York, 1990
Costantinides, G. C. Intelligence and Espionage: An Analytical Bibliography, Westview Press: Boulder, CO, 1983.
Craveri, Raimondo, La Campagna d’Italia e i servizi segreti: La storia dell’ORI (1943–1945), La Pietra: Milan, 1980
Crosswell, D.K.R., Beetle: The Life of General Walter Bedell Smith, University Press of Kentucky: Lexington, KY, 2010
Davis, M. C., Chi difende Roma? I quarantacinque giorni: 25 luglio–8 settembre 1943, Rizzoli Editore: Milan, 1973
Deakin, Frederick W., Storia della repubblica di Salò, Vol. 2, Einaudi: Turin, 1963
Degli Espinosa, A., Il Regno del Sud, Editori Riuniti: Rome, 1973
De Leonardis, Massimo, La Gran Bretagna e la resistenza partigiana in Italia (1943–1945), Scientifiche Italiane: Naples, 1988
De Risio, Carlo, Generali, Servizi Segreti e Fascismo 1940-1943, Mondadori: Milan, 1978
De Risio, C., La tenda di Cassibile, Editrice Science Technology History: Rome, 1993
Di Benigno, J., Occasione mancate, S.E.I.: Rome, 1945
Dodds-Parker, D., Setting Europe Ablaze: Some Account of Ungentlemanly Warfare, Springwood Books: Windlesham, 1983
Dollmann, E., Roma nazista, Longanesi & C: Milan, 1951
Dulles, A., The Secret Surrender, The Lyons Press: Guildford, 2006
Ehrman, J., History of the Second World War: Grand Strategy. Volume V, HMSO: London, 1956
Eisenhower, D. D., Crusade in Europe, Heinemann: London, 1948
Foot, M. R. D., S.O.E.: The Special Operations Executive 1940–46, Arrow Books: London, 1984
Gallegos, A., From Capri to Oblivion, Hodder & Stoughton: London, 1960
Garland, A. N. and Smyth, H. M., Sicily and the Surrender of Italy, Government Printing Office: Washington, DC, 1993
Giacomozzi, C., Un eccidio a Bolzano, Città di Bolzano: Bolzano, 2011
Gleeson, J. and Waldron, T., Now It Can Be Told, Elek Books: London, 1954
Graziani, R., Ho difeso la patria, Garzanti: Milan, 1947
Holt, T., The Deceivers, Weidenfeld & Nicolson: London, 2004
Howarth, P., Undercover: The Men and Women of the S.O.E., Routledge & Kegan Paul: London, 1980
Kuby, E., Il tradimento tedesco, Rizzoli: Milan, 1987
Jakub, J., Spies and Saboteurs, Palgrave Macmillan: London, 1999
Lamb, R., War in Italy, 1943-1945: A Brutal Story, John Murray: London, 1993
Lanfranchi, F., La resa degli ottocentomila, Rizzoli: Milan, 1948
Lembo, D., I servizi segreti di Salò: Servizi Segreti e Servizi Speciali nella Repubblica Sociale Italiana, Grafica Ma.Ro srl Editrice: Copiano, 2001
Macintosh, C., From Cloak to Dagger: An SOE agent in Italy 1943-45, William Kimber: London, 1982
Mackenzie, W. J. M., The Secret History of SOE: The Special Operations Executive 1940-45, St Ermin’s Press: London, 2000
Marchesi, L., Come siamo arrivati a Brindisi, Bompiani: Milan, 1969
——, 1939-1945 Dall’impreparazione alla resa incondizionata, Mursia: Milan, 1993
——, Per la libertà. Il contributo militare italiano al servizio informazioni alleato (dall’8 settembre 1943 al 25 aprile 1945), Mursia: Milan, 1995
Marks, L., Between Silk and Cyanide: The Story of SOE’s Code War, Harper Collins: London, 1998
Masci, M., I Savoia. L’ultimo giorno, Editrice Italica: Pescara, 1966
Mellano, P., Da Roma a Brindisi (via Pescara), unpublished: Rome, 1967
Ministero degli Affari Esteri, I Documenti Documenti diplomatici italiani, Nona serie: 1939–1943, vol. X (7 febbraio – 8 settembre 1943), Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato: Rome, 1990
Moore, Bob and Fedorowich, Kent, The British Empire and its Italian Prisoners of War, 1940–1947, Palgrave: Basingstoke, 2002
Murphy, C. J., Security and Special Operations: SOE and MI5 During the Second World War, Palgrave Macmillan: London, 2006
Nesi, S., Junio Valerio Borghese: Un principe un comandante un Italiano, Lo Scarabeo: Bologna, 2004
Palermo, Ivan, Storia di un Armistizio, Mondadori: Milan, 1967
Parlato, Giuseppe, Fascisti senza Mussolini, Il Mulino: Bologna, 2006
Parri, Ferruccio, Due mesi con i nazisti, Carecas: Rome, 1973
Pawley, Margaret, In Obedience to Instructions: F.A.N.Y. with the SOE in the Mediterranean, Leo Cooper: Barnsley, 1999
Peniakoff, Vladimir, Popski’s Private Army, Reprint: London, 1953
Piffer, T., Il banchiere della resistenza. Alfredo Pizzoni, il protagonista cancellato della guerra di liberazione, Mondadori: Milan, 2005
Pizzoni A., Alla guida del CLNAI, Il Mulino: Bologna, 1995
Richards, B., Secret Flotillas. Volume II: Clandestine Sea Operations in the Mediterranean, North Africa and the Adriatic, 1940-44, Frank Cass: London, 2004
Roatta, M., Otto milioni di baionette, Mondadori: Milan, 1946
Rossi, C., Trentatré vicende mussoliniane, Ceschina: Milan, 1958
Rossi, F., Come arrivammo all’armistizio, Garzanti: Milan, 1946
Smith, Bradley F. and Aga Rossi, Elena, Operation Sunrise: La resa tedesca in Italia 2 maggio ‘45, Mondadori: Milan, 2005
Sogno, E., Guerra senza bandiera, Rizzoli: Milan, 1950
——, La Franchi: Storia di un’organizzazione partigiana, Il Mulino: Bologna, 1996
Stafford, D., Mission Accomplished: SOE and Italy 1943–1945, Vintage Books: London, 2011
Strong, K., Intelligence at the Top, Cassell: London, 1968
Tamaro, A., Due Anni di Storia 1943–1945, Tosi: Rome, 1950
Taylor, M. D., Swords and Plowshares, W.W. Norton: New York, 1972
Tompkins, Peter, A Spy in Rome, Simon and Schuster: New York, 1962
——, Italy Betrayed, Simon and Schuster: New York, 1966
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——, L’altra resistenza, Rizzoli: Milan, 1995
Torsiello, M., Settembre 1943, Istituto Editoriale Cisalpino: Milan-Varese, 1963
Toscano, M., Dal 25 luglio all’8 settembre, Le Monnier: Florence, 1966
Ufficio Storico della Marina Militare, Le memorie dell’Ammiraglio de Courten (1943–1946), Stabilimento Grafico Militare: Rome, 1993
Vailati, Vanna, L’armistizio e il Regno del Sud, Palazzi Editore: Milan, 1969
——, La Storia Nascosta, GCC: Turin, 1986
various, N. 1 Special Force nella Resistenza italiana, Editrice Clueb: Bologna, 1990
von Lang, J., Der Adjutant: Karl Wolff, der Mann zwischen Hitler und Himmler, Herbig: Stuttgart, 1985
von Plehwe, F. K., Il patto d’acciaio, Longanesi: Milan, 1970
Wagg, A. and Brown, D., No Spaghetti for Breakfast, Nicholson and Watson: London, 1943
West, N., Secret War: The Story of SOE, Britain’s Wartime Sabotage Organisation, Hodder & Stoughton: London, 1992
Wilkinson, P. and Astley, J. B., Gubbins and SOE, Leo Cooper: Barnsley, 1993
Zangrandi, R., 1943: 25 Luglio-8 Settembre, Feltrinelli: Milan, 1964.
Articles, Book Chapters, Theses
Barneschi, G., ‘La misteriosa (e curiosa) vicenda di Ettore Bastico, Maresciallo d’Italia’, Nuova Storia Contemporanea, 4/2004
——, ‘Misteri, equivoci e ambiguità del tragico settembre 1943: Le radiotrasmissioni dell’agente speciale Dick Mallaby, l’inglese che viaggiò con il re e con Badoglio’, Nuova Storia Contemporanea, 3/2013
——, ‘La verità sulla resa dei tedeschi in Italia’, Nuova Storia Contemporanea, 5-6/2016
Campbell, A. E., ‘Franklin Roosevelt and Unconditional Surrender’, in E. Langhorne, Diplomacy and Intelligence during the Second World War: Essays in Honour of F. H. Hinsley, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 1985
Deakin, Frederick W., ‘Lo Special Operations Executive e la lotta partigiana’, in F. Ferratini Tosi, G. Grassi, M. Legnani, L’Italia nella seconda guerra mondiale e nella resistenza, Franco Angeli: Milan, 1988, pp. 93–126.
Manaresi, F., ‘I tedeschi dietro la “fuga” del Re: Un colloquio e una corrispondenza con Eugenio Dollmann’, in Nuova Storia Contemporanea, 6/2009
Seaman, M., ‘A Glass Half Full: Some Thoughts on the Evolution of the Study of the Special Operations Executive’, Intelligence and National Security 20/1, 2005
Wales, T. C., ‘The “Massingham” Mission and the Secret “Special Relationship”. Cooperation and Rivalry between the Anglo-American Clandestine Services in French North Africa, November 1942-May 1943’, Intelligence and National Security 20/1, March 2005
Williams, D., ‘An Interview with Miss Paddy Sproule’, FANY Gazette, 1999
Woods, C., ‘A Tale of Two Armistices’, in K. G. Robertson (ed.), War, Resistance & Intelligence: Essays in Honour of M. R. D. Foot, Leo Cooper: London, 1999
——, ‘SOE in Italy’, in M. Seaman (ed.), Special Operations Executive: A New Instrument of War, Routledge: London, 2006
Endnotes
PREFACE
1 David Stafford, Mission Accomplished: SOE and Italy 1943–1945, Vintage Books: London, 2011, p. 10.
2 Ibid., p. XVI; on this point, see also the views in Patrick Howarth, Undercover: The Men and Women of the S.O.E., Routledge & Kegan Paul: London, 1980, pp. 188–89.
CHAPTER 1: MALLABY’S EARLY YEARS, 1919–39
1 Private diary of Mary Beatrice Schofield and Cecil Mallaby, first volume: 19 April 1919–30 November 1920.
Unless specified, all information comes from the personal diary of Mary Beatrice Schofield and Cecil Mallaby (then only Cecil Mallaby), as well as from the papers and memoirs of Dick Mallaby, the consultation and custody of which was kindly and faithfully permitted by Dick Mallaby’s wife, Mrs Christine Northcote-Marks Mallaby, their son Vaky Mallaby and Dick Mallaby’s half-sister, Mrs Pia Teresa Mallaby (depending on the relevant diary years). Without access to such documents, the consistency, details and overall value of this work would have been greatly inferior.
2 Archivio Centrale dello Stato – Rome (henceforth abbreviated to ACS): Allied Control Commission (henceforth ACC) microfilm, Public Safety, item: Cecil D. Mallaby, reel 166 C.
CHAPTER 2: SPECIAL OPERATIONS EXECUTIVE
1 SOE activities were minimal or non-existent in Germany and Japan, as well as in Italy until 1943.
2 In a memorandum dated 28 September 1943 on SOE activity in Italy in the preceding years, it was reported that, with regard to Operation Avalanche (the Allied landings at Salerno), Allied HQ had requested information on Italy: ‘SOE responded to this request and although gathering and transmitting information is not our function, considerable appreciation was expressed in relation to the prompt way in which we were able to provide complete answers to their questions.’ The National Archives, London (henceforth TNA), HS 6/775.
3 Michael R. D. Foot, S.O.E.: The Special Operations Executive 1940–46, Arrow Books: London, 1984, p. 17. William Mackenzie, The Secret History of S.O.E.: Special Operations Executive 1940–1945, St Ermin’s Press: London, 2002, p. XIX.
4 According to Foot 1984, King George personally awarded a well-deserved DSO to a known burglar, for reasons obviously unspecified. Also, among the agents recruited was the owner of a chain of brothels.
5 A photo of Hitler was found in the luggage of a newly arrived recruit at a training base. This person ‘was discreetly dismissed and classified as “missing, probably killed”’ (Foot 1984, p. 176).
6 In a similar vein, classified British documents provide evidence of correspondence between Gubbins and the head of Italian Affairs, Cecil Laurence Roseberry, concerning a detailed plan to eliminate Mussolini and prominent fascist Roberto Farinacci (TNA: HS 7/265). They also contain a Most Secret message dated 14 July 1943 between Foreign Minister Eden and Churchill, in which the former rejected the proposal to bomb Mussolini’s residence, or his ‘office’ at Palazzo Venezia, given the lack of certainty of total success, and the consequent risks of increasing Mussolini’s stature and creating civilian casualties. The prime minister agreed.
7 See (among others): Peter Tompkins, A Spy in Rome, Simon and Schuster: New York, 1962, p. 10; Raimondo Craveri, La Campagna d’Italia e i servizi segreti: La storia dell’ORI (1943–1945), La Pietra: Milan, 1980, p. 41. Craveri was a top figure in the Italian resistance movement. In this book, he also notes (p. 66) the typically Italo-American tale of the Sicilian anti-Fascist exile Biagio Massimo (later Max) Corvo, who went from being a common soldier to OSS Director of Italian Operations.
8 Foot 1984, pp. 81 and 89.
9 See (among others) Stafford 2011.
10 Douglas Dodds-Parker, Setting Europe Ablaze, Springwood Books: Windlesham, 1984, p. 86, confirms this type of use, reporting that he had heard that stink bombs were very popular in Greece, where they were used in cinemas frequented by Axis troops. The same author reveals that their manufacture had been contracted to the main perfume companies ‘using predominantly traditional ingredients’.
11 Dodds-Parker 1984, p. 87.
12 Raimondo Craveri called Roseberry the ‘éminence grise of the English government with regards to Italy … An important man, surrounded by a halo of reverential mystery, he had performed delicate duties in India and in the Middle East, which were mentioned in whispers’ (Craveri 1980, p. 139).
13 The Italian Social Republic, the state set up by Mussolini in northern Italy following ther armistice with the Allies in 1943.
14 A rich and lively collection of accounts and memories relating to SOE missions in Italy from 1943 to 1945, witnessed from a particular standpoint, is also contained in: Margaret Pawley, In Obedience to Instructions: F.A.N.Y. with the SOE in the Mediterranean, Leo Cooper: Barnsley, 1999, passim.
15 Craveri 1980, pp. 38–39; he also emphasizes (p. 76) that: ‘SOE peppered northern Italy with missions led by brave British officers, even in Garibaldine formations, who knows? Perhaps more to control them than to genuine
ly help them.’
CHAPTER 3: OPERATION NECK, 14 AUGUST 1943
1 TNA: HS 6/775.
2 Ibid.; Bob Moore and Kent Fedorowich, The British Empire and its Italian Prisoners of War, 1940–1947, Palgrave: Basingstoke, 2002, pp. 109–10 and 259 (note).
3 TNA: HS 6/872-889.
4 SIM – Military Information Service – Italian military espionage and counterespionage.
5 Cesare Amè, Guerra segreta in Italia, Gherardo Casini Editore: Rome, 1954, pp. 163–64.
6 For further details, see: Stafford 2011, pp. 92–94, 99 and 100–01; TNA: HS 6/775–776–809; and National Archives and Records Administration (henceforth NARA) RG 226, Entry 215, Box 4.
7 Deakin, Frederick W., ‘Lo Special Operations Executive e la lotta partigiana’, in F. Ferratini Tosi, G. Grassi, M. Legnani, L’Italia nella seconda guerra mondiale e nella resistenza, Franco Angeli: Milan, 1988, pp. 93–126. Stafford 2011 and Thadeus Holt (in The Deceivers, Weidenfeld & Nicolson: London, 2004, p. 14) emphasize this notion.
8 TNA, HS 7/263. Bailey 2014, p. 201. The same author (ibid., pp. 356–57) observes that many historians wrongly shared Roseberry’s glossing version of the Italians’ successes, revealing (ibid., p. 355) that, after the official disclosure of the infiltration: ‘When word was dispatched to SOE’s outpost in Bern, care was taken to break the news gently to Jock McCaffery. A few weeks earlier he had ended up in a Lugano clinic suffering from nervous exhaustion from overwork and “cerebral commotion” from a spot of concussion. Unsurprisingly his first reaction to the report was one of shock and disbelief.’
Edgardo Sogno, in La Franchi Storia di un’organizzazione partigiana Il Mulino: Bologna, 1996, p. 123, pointed out that even in July 1944, in Monopoli, there took place ‘something similar to what happened in the previous April in Bern with Mc Caffery’, because British officials, with ‘fundamental pragmatisms’, kept on welcoming Italian resistance organizations ‘the way they were, just because they worked, even if what we were doing was in part contrary to their standards of security’.
9 ‘It is important the groups are not aware of this, and since everything will be in code, it should not be difficult’ (TNA: HS 6/869).
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