Matches in Harvard for { ?s ?p "During the Second World War, British and Imperial forces captured more than half a million Italian soldiers, sailors and airmen. Although a symbol of military success, these prisoners created a multitude of problems for the authorities. This book examines the capture, dispersal across the Empire, incarceration and intelligence potential of prisoners." "What becomes apparent is that the British authorities, when faced with these problems, found ways and means of converting Italian POWs from liabilities into assets. Some of this asset value, such as the use of POWs as a source of labour and intelligence, had been understood long before the outbreak of the Second World War, but their further use as a political warfare tool was developed only during the course of hostilities. The book also looks at the impact of the Italian prisoners on their 'host' countries, the internal political and social problems which were created, and also how the prisoners themselves reacted to long-term incarceration both before and after the Italian surrender in September 1943. Finally, the text turns to the vexed questions of repatriation and the organisation of this most difficult task in the months and years after 1945"--Jacket.. }
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- catalog abstract ""During the Second World War, British and Imperial forces captured more than half a million Italian soldiers, sailors and airmen. Although a symbol of military success, these prisoners created a multitude of problems for the authorities. This book examines the capture, dispersal across the Empire, incarceration and intelligence potential of prisoners." "What becomes apparent is that the British authorities, when faced with these problems, found ways and means of converting Italian POWs from liabilities into assets. Some of this asset value, such as the use of POWs as a source of labour and intelligence, had been understood long before the outbreak of the Second World War, but their further use as a political warfare tool was developed only during the course of hostilities. The book also looks at the impact of the Italian prisoners on their 'host' countries, the internal political and social problems which were created, and also how the prisoners themselves reacted to long-term incarceration both before and after the Italian surrender in September 1943. Finally, the text turns to the vexed questions of repatriation and the organisation of this most difficult task in the months and years after 1945"--Jacket.".