A nation collapses

the long version

"The book analyzes the course of the secret negotiations between Italy and Britain before the overthrow of Mussolini in July 1943 and finds that both parties negotiated in bad faith and with a great deal of duplicity. Misjudging their Axis partner, Nazi Germany, as well as the Allied powers, the Italians both overestimated the extent of the Allies' strategic commitment in Italy and promised their conquerors a degree of military assistance they were in no condition to deliver. The Italian army, bereft to leadership or guidance, swiftly fell into disarray, and hundreds of thousands of troops were rounded up by the Germans and interned in concentration camps. As the Anglo-American troops that controlled southern Italy advanced into the German-occupied north, the country, ravaged by a mounting civil war, became a battlefield for the opposing armies for twenty long months."--Jacket.