Böcker av Janet Kinrade Dethick

In this book the survivors of one of the worst cases of friendly fire in World War 2 tell their story.On 28 January 1944 twenty-seven B-26 bombers from 441, 442, 443 and 444 squadrons, 320 Bomb Group, United States Army Air Force, bombed a bridge over the river Paglia at Allerona to the north of Orvieto, Italy. At the time a Prisoner of War train carrying Allied servicemen from PG Camp 54 Fara in Sabina to Germany was crossing the bridge.The exact composition of the train, and the number of persons aboard, is still open to conjecture: the majority of the card-indices and transfer documents were destroyed with the train.The British authorities learned about what happened through the interception of German communications, and on 14 February British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, in passing on the information to President Roosvelt via a special ULTRA message, was insistent that the bombing should remain top secret as a leak would point directly to British control of the German code.

In seguito alle nuove leggi razziali emesse dalla Repubblica di Salò il 30 novembre 1943 un gruppo di ebrei della Provincia di Perugia fu detenuto al Castello Guglielmi all'Isola Maggiore sul Lago Trasimeno, Umbria. Le fonti resistenziali attribuiscono la loro liberazione ad opera delle forze partigiane, asserendo che questo sia un caso praticamente unico in Italia. Inoltre si prendono il merito di aver impedito all'ultimo momento il loro trasferimento ai campi di sterminio. Però i fatti venuti alla luce dopo sessantacinque anni rivelano che il loro rilascio non andò esattamente così. La raccolta delle testimonianze orali e scritte e il ritrovamento dei documenti nell'Archivio diocesano di Perugia e negli Archivi di stato di Perugia e Roma da parte di tre investigatori, fra i quali l'autrice, ha stabilito definitivamente lo svolgersi degli avvenimenti.

John Dethick, bass baritone, 1915-2000, to be was considered by many to be the oustanding interpreter of the title role in Mendelssohn's Elijah of his time. Born in Henley on Thames to Derbyshire parents, apart from two seasons in London at Sadler's Wells and two on the Spa in Scarborough, he lived in Derbyshire, his family's roots in the county dating back to the early Middle Ages. The first part of the book is a transcription of a recording he made of his life story in 1995. The second and third give documentary evidence of his career, including concert reviews, whilst the fourth refers to his two most successful pupils, the late Patricia Leonard of D'Oyly Carte Opera and internationally renowned bass John Tranter. There is also a contribution from his daughter, Janet Kinrade Dethick.

During her distinguished career, HM Submarine Saracen was responsible for sinking thousands of tons of Axis shipping. But in August 1943 her luck ran out when she was mortally wounded by depth charges from two Italian corvettes, the last Allied submarine to be sunk by the Italians. Forced to surface, she was scuttled by her crew who were taken prisoner. But HMS Saracen's story is more than the story of a submarine. It is the story of her crew and their experiences both before and after her loss. From the cat and mouse games of war at sea to their harrowing escape from their stricken ship, from being sent to Dachau to finding themselves on a POW train bombed by the Americans, from being shot by the Germans to being assisted by the Rome Escape Line, from being sheltered by Italian families to joining the partisans, their stories of escape, of flight, of capture, are as varied as the men themselves. But their shared goal was to return home safely to their families and sadly some never did.

During the Second World War the small landlocked Italian region of Umbria was crossed by thousands of Allied servicemen. There were those entrained for camps in Northern Italy, in Germany or in German-controlled territories. There were those belonging to work parties who came in open trucks from Campo PG 54 at Fara in Sabina to construct a new camp, Campo PG 77 at Pissignano, or to swell the much-depleted indigenous labour force in a cement factory and brickworks and were interned in PG 115 (Morgnano) and PG 115/3 (Marsciano). There were men from the Special Air Services (SAS) who had been parachuted in to carry out special missions. There were the American airmen whose planes had been shot down from the Umbrian skies. There were the escapers and evaders who in trying to reach the Allied Lines or neutral Switzerland walked the Appenines. There were two submariners from HM Submarine Saracen who were held in Perugia gaol before being sent to Dachau. This is their story.

Nel Cimitero di Guerra del Regno Unito ed il Commonwealth, locato a Rivotorto, Assisi, risultano sepolti 941 militari conosciuti e quattro sconosciuti; insieme a loro ci sono quattro italiani appartenenti alla no. 1 Special Force d'intelligence britannica. 903 erano soldati e 41 aviatori. Di uno si sa solo che era di nazionalità britannica. Dividendo i morti per nazione, ci sono 802 britannici, 55 sudafricani, 49 canadesi e 29 neozelandesi. 10 appartenevano ai reparti indiani. Solo nove di questi militari morirono il 17 giugno 1944, giorno in cui la città di Assisi fu liberata. Gli altri, secondo il sito ufficiale della CWGC, furono portati ad Assisi 'dai campi di battaglia circostanti'. Questo libro non solo elenca i campi di battaglia, ma fa riferimento agli ospedali da campo ed anche alle altre circostanze in cui alcuni militari incontrarono la morte, fra i quali 17 prigionieri di guerra che morirono in Umbria, Lazio ed Abruzzo prima del passaggio del fronte.