Shows / WW II Gothic Line ghosts haunt modern day Italy, Europe
WW II Gothic Line ghosts haunt modern day Italy, Europe
Italy was on the wrong side of history in WW II and the campaign to defeat Nazis and Italian Fascists is known as the Forgotten Front. Launched after the liberation of Rome, the Gothic Line offensive barely gets a footnote in most military history annals. But it featured the most multinational, multi-racial army in WW II. Intertwined in this battle was a vicious Italian civil war and hundreds of civilian massacres - war crimes never prosecuted. Collective amnesia about this ugly past is a…
Episodes
WW II Gothic Line ghosts haunt modern day Italy, EuropeOperation Tombola: Rogue, British-led secret operation made up of a team of resistance fighters like no other in WWII helped break a Gothic Line stalemate
``The further back you can look the further forward you can see.'' - Winston Churchill By Joe Kirwin There are numerous iconic WWII behind-enemy-lines secret…
WW II Gothic Line ghosts haunt modern day Italy, EuropeSeeking guidance from the mastermind of the Gothic Line: Winston Churchill and his failed efforts to use northern Italy as a launchpad to head off the Soviets in Eastern Europe
``The further back you can look the further forward you can see.'' - Winston Churchill By Joe Kirwin There are 57 WWII British Commonwealth Grave cemeteries…
WW II Gothic Line ghosts haunt modern day Italy, EuropeThe Backstage ``enemy territory'' Gothic Line story: secret operations, Allied POWS, a motley mix of partisan resistance fighters and the road to Trieste and the Cold War Pt.1
``The further backward you can look the further forward you can see," Winston Churchill. As Russian Dictator Vladimir Putin continues to wage his murderous war…
WW II Gothic Line ghosts haunt modern day Italy, EuropeThe WWII Italian and Greek saga: death, destruction, revenge, resistance and a little mea culpa Pr. 2
``The further backward you can look, the further forward you can see,'' Winston Churchill By Joe Kirwin When Italian dictator Benito Mussolini joined Adolph…
WW II Gothic Line ghosts haunt modern day Italy, EuropeGreek Army's Rimini liberation - the 1st Gothic Line breakthrough - was a WWII bright spot overshadowed by Italian, Nazi invasions at home and a post-WWII civil war and military dictatorship Pt. 1
``The further backward you can look, the further forward you can see,'' former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill on the importance of understanding…
WW II Gothic Line ghosts haunt modern day Italy, EuropeThe Sept. 8, 1943 WWII Italian Armistice and the complex, confusing battlefield: pt. 2
``The further backward you can look, the further forward you can see,'' former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill on the importance of understanding…
WW II Gothic Line ghosts haunt modern day Italy, EuropeWhen Italy declared a 1943 WWII armistice some 2.5 million Italian soldiers had to decide: fight with the Germans, go to prison or escape. More than 100,000 joined Gothic Line Allied Forces Pt. 1
``The further backwards you can look, the further forward you can see,'' Winston Churchill on the need to know history By Joe Kirwin It is known as the ``the…
WW II Gothic Line ghosts haunt modern day Italy, EuropeEuropean anti-immigrant politicians need a history lesson; it should start in cemeteries such as the WWII graves of Indian soldiers who died freeing Italy, Europe from Nazi, Italian fascist tyranny
``The farther backward you can look, the further forward you can see,'' Winston Churchill. If you spend much time listening to European conservative…
WW II Gothic Line ghosts haunt modern day Italy, EuropeIndian soldiers and the WWII Allied Army Gothic Line campaign Pt. 2: Expatriate Indian community in Italy embrace their forebears but the story is still a blank history page in India.
``The further backward you can look, the further forward you can see,'' Winston Churchill on the need to know history. More than 50,000 Indian and Gurkha…
WW II Gothic Line ghosts haunt modern day Italy, EuropeBlack soldiers and racial abuse on the Gothic Line: 80 years later the Pentagon has a special program to ID uknown 92nd Buffalo soldiers U.S. military Gothic Line cemetery in Florence Pt. 3
``The further backwards you can look, the further forward you can see,'' Winston Churchill and the need to know history. At the top of the hillside U.S…
WW II Gothic Line ghosts haunt modern day Italy, EuropeRighting the wrong of U.S. Army racial abuse faced by African American soldiers on the Gothic LineI
``The further backward you can look the further forward you can see,'' Winston Churchill on the need to know history. Welcome again to the podcast and this…
WW II Gothic Line ghosts haunt modern day Italy, EuropeUnsung Brothers in Arms, Gothic Line heroes: Indian troops side by side with Scottish Highlanders - Part 1
``The further backward you can look the further forward you can see,'' Winston Churchill on the need to know history. There are many Gothic Line heroes who…
WW II Gothic Line ghosts haunt modern day Italy, EuropeD-day Dodgers and the Senio River Crucible: the epitomy of the British Eighth Army frustrations, failures and blood-soaked Gothic Line breakthrough
``The further backward you can look, the further foward you can see,'' Winston Churchill on the benefit of studying history By Joe Kirwin From an early age…
WW II Gothic Line ghosts haunt modern day Italy, EuropeThe Jewish Brigade on the Gothic Line: the first Jewish army since Roman times
``The further backward you can look, the furher forward you can see,'' Winston Churchill on the need to know history. By Joe Kirwin Eighty some years before…
WW II Gothic Line ghosts haunt modern day Italy, EuropePet therapy, comic relief, military asset: Wojtek the bear was the Polish Army's secret weapon in Italy - Part 3
``The further backward you can look, the further forward you can see,'' Winston Churchill on the need to know history. By Joe Kirwin When you learn the story…
WW II Gothic Line ghosts haunt modern day Italy, EuropeThe long,dangerous WWII Polish diaspora to Italy, Gothic Line - Part 2; a simple twist of fate turns potential tradedy into a love story for a Jewish refugee that fought in the Polish Army in Italy
``The further backwards you can look, the further forward you can see,'' Winston Churchill on the need to know history. By Joe Kirwin When Leone Singer escaped…
WW II Gothic Line ghosts haunt modern day Italy, EuropeThe long, dangerous WWII Polish Army diaspora to Italy, Gothic Line- Part 1
``The further backwards you can look, the further forward you can see,'' Winston Churchill on the need to know history By Joe Kirwin The story of war and the…
WW II Gothic Line ghosts haunt modern day Italy, EuropeBrazilian soldiers on the Gothic Line: the only racially integrated army to fight in WW II
War and politics can make for strange bedfellows and that axiom was as true 80 years ago in WW II in Italy as it is today. One prominent example of that was…
WW II Gothic Line ghosts haunt modern day Italy, EuropeFrom rejects to heroes: the U.S. Army 10th Mountain Division proved vital in reversing Gothic Line failures
Ivy League envy is a familiar theme that has occasionally surfaced in American public and political life since the elite universities such as Harvard, Cornell…
WW II Gothic Line ghosts haunt modern day Italy, EuropeBlack South African soldiers fought and died for democracy on the WW II Gothic Line in Italy; upon their return the brutal repression of apartheid was put into law
By Joe Kirwin There are numerous Gothic Line Offensive stories that are obscure and nearly lost to history but none more so than the more 7,000 South African…
WW II Gothic Line ghosts haunt modern day Italy, EuropeMonte Battaglia 1944: from Myth to History
The ferocious 4-month battle that took place at Monte Cassino when Allied Forces attempted to break through the mountains between Naples and Rome and drive the…
WW II Gothic Line ghosts haunt modern day Italy, Europe100-year-old Japanese-American U.S. Army veteran Yoshio Nakamura recounts horror, heroism and redemption fighting on the Gothic Line while his family remained in U.S. prisons after Pearl Harbor
By Joe Kirwin Soon after the surprise Dec. 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii when Japanese forces destroyed much of the U.S. Navy and Air Force Pacific…
WW II Gothic Line ghosts haunt modern day Italy, EuropeThe Rifle and The Rifle 2 author Andrew Biggio describes heroism, desperation, desertion of Gothic Line soldiers used as ``bait'' to pin down German troops in Italy as Allied Forces marched on Berlin
By Joe Kirwin Over the past decade, author and U.S. Marine veteran Andrew Biggio interviewed more than 30 U.S. Army soldiers who fought on the Gothic Line as…
WW II Gothic Line ghosts haunt modern day Italy, EuropeU.S. Fifth Army begins its Gothic Line thrust with daunting attack up Monte Altuzzo; modern day open-air museum re-enactments fill in the pages of this taboo Italian history for younger generations
By Joe Kirwin When the U.S. Fifth Army launched its part of the Allied Force Gothic Line one-two punch pincer movement to capture Bologna it began with a one…
- WW II Gothic Line ghosts haunt modern day Italy, Europe
Indian soldiers fought, died on the Gothic Line; 80 years later Indian ex-pat Dhruv Ratti campaigns for recognition that Italians, Europeans benefit from freedom ``nourished by Indian blood''
By Joe Kirwin More than 60,000 Indian troops served in the Allied Force armies that fought and died to free Italy from German and Italian Fascist tyranny even…
WW II Gothic Line ghosts haunt modern day Italy, EuropeThe Gothic Line Offensive launched after 100,000 British Eigth Army troops moved 100 miles to the Adriatic coast in one of the most daring, difficult logistical operations in WW II
By Joe Kirwin After U.S. Fifth Army General Mark Clark deviated from an Allied Force plan in early June 1944 to trap retreating Germans in central Italy and…
WW II Gothic Line ghosts haunt modern day Italy, EuropeU.S. Army African American soldiers fought two Gothic Line wars: one vs. the Nazis, the other vs. racist U.S. Army commanders. Author Solace Wales tells the story based on 30 years of research
By Joe Kirwin When U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January of 2025 one of the first things his newly confirmed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth did…
WW II Gothic Line ghosts haunt modern day Italy, EuropeIntroduction: Gothic Line 80th anniversary podcast overview, expert discussion panel, lessons in today's geopolitical world
By Joe Kirwin 85 years ago Italy was on the wrong side of history after joining Adolf Hitler in declaring war against Allied countries including the United…
- WW II Gothic Line ghosts haunt modern day Italy, Europe
The Past is Present - Part I: In the 1930s many European countries were in denial about Hitler. Today the same is true about the threat Vladimir Putin's aggression and imperialistic ambitions
Russian emigre and Prague-based history professor Sergei Medvedev explains how the past is present in Europe as Russian President Vladimir Putin makes no…
WW II Gothic Line ghosts haunt modern day Italy, EuropeHundreds of WW II Nazi, Italian Fascist civilian massacres in Italy still a festering politcal wound
By Joe Kirwin Nazi and Italian Fascist troops committed more than 200 civilian massacres in WW II in Italy between July of 1944 and April of 1945. Few were…