Emilia Publishing News Archives
SOE IN ITALY 1940-1945: THE REAL STORY REVIEWED IN ITALIA! MAGAZINE
"The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was active in Europe during World War Two. This book tells the fascinating story of Britain's secret army who sabotaged and subverted their way through those dark times in occupied Italy as they supported local resistance groups in their fight against Fascism. A measured account of a significant slice of military history, with interviews, archive photos and the latest research." --- August 2011.
LIBERATOR CREW COMMEMORATED
Anne Storm writes:
On Sunday, 15 May 2011, a memorial plaque for the crew of Liberator KH 158 H of 31 Squadron SAAF was unveiled in a ceremony high in the Ligurian Apennines, ENE of Genoa. The plaque is on the wall of an old round house in the grounds of a wartime partisan dwelling, Faggio Rotondo, Neirone. This is in the vicinity of the 1944 supply drop zone 'Morris' and near a regular mountain hiking trail.
The crew were: Maj SS Urry - SAAF; F/O GE Hudspith - RAF; F/O TR Millar - RAAF; Lt GA Collard - SAAF; Lt NW Armstrong - SAAF; 2/Lt PJ Lordan - SAAF; W/O LB Bloch - SAAF; Sgt RC Fitzgerald - RAF.
The ceremony was attended by my family (daughter, son-in-law and grandsons of F/O TR Millar RAAF, the bomb-aimer); relatives of the pilot, Maj SS Urry SAAF; British, Australian and South African Embassy staff from Rome and Genoa; and Ligurian officials, a lady Member of Parliament, mayors from the nearby towns, and local people. The event was covered by the Genoan press.
Liberator KH 158 H is still missing, but I feel that this plaque is a culmination of 10 years of research into my father's wartime life and disappearance. Now more local Italian people and officials know about the loss of the plane and one day someone just might find out information about its whereabouts.
ITALIA! MAGAZINE'S BEST BOOKS ...
Malcolm Tudor's new book, Beyond the Wire, is recommended as 'a must-read
for those interested in both Italy and wartime tales' in the November 2010
issue. The magazine also includes an article by Malcolm on How to Trace
your Italian Ancestors.
VISIT TO FORMER CAMP PG 49 FONTANELLATO
Australian businessman Dan Burman pictured with one of Malcolm's books outside the wartime camp where his grandfather, Lieutenant William Burman, was a prisoner of war. The lieutenant made a daring escape to Switzerland. His story is one of those included in the new book Beyond the Wire.