History

Partisan Brigades

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The Italian Resistance was one of the most important in Europe. In the summer of 1944, the partisans numbered around 70,000, but by the end of the war they were 200,000 strong and had suffered 50,000 casualties. They tied up a third of the German army in Italy (9 Nazi divisions, a total of 300,000 troops) away from the Allied front.. While the majority of the Italian people did not take up arms against the Germans, they considered Germany an enemy and helped the partisans.

In September 1943, during what is now referred to as the “Four Days of Naples, a spontaneous insurrection of people liberated the city just before the Allies arrival. This improvised, yet effective resistance demonstrated the Italian population’s willingness to fight against the Nazis.. Nevertheless, the unpredictability of a war fought by civilians made the Allies suspicious. The British in particular, with their aristocratic approach to warfare, regarded the operations behind the lines by men without proper uniform as an “unclean war”. The Americans, however, were more pragmatic, recognizing the partisans’ strategic importance; they initiated collaboration with the Italian Resistance.