WW II Gothic Line ghosts haunt modern day Italy, Europe

history · EN-US

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 present political menace in the face of Italy's economic and defense challenges.