File:Italian guerilla resistance fighters (36200098443).png

Four Italian guerilla resistance fighters wait in ambush with their rifles levelled in the dirt, on the Apennines, Italy, May 1944. Although the Italy under Mussolini was part of the Allies, the resistance was huge. For instance, Italian soldiers captured by the Germans numbered around 650,000-700,000 (some 45,000 others were killed in combat, executed, or died during transport), of whom between 40,000 and 50,000 later died in the camps. Most refused cooperation with the Third Reich despite hardship, chiefly to maintain their oath of fidelity to the King. Their former allies designated them Italian military internees to deny them prisoner of war status and the rights granted by the Geneva Convention. Their actions were eventually recognized as an act of unarmed resistance on a par with the armed confrontation of other Italian servicemen.

05/1944