The first peace-feelers

An American Secret Service report went out of Italy to Washington on 16 July 1942. It said that the Italians now hated Germany. Their monarchy was tottering. The Pope ‘is strongly anti-Axis, and particularly anti-German. He is of the saintly type, and is essentially patriotic, but is opposed to war. He has proved himself a weak and cautious man, and an “appeaser”; his attitude has been somewhat akin to that of our isolationists. He looks upon the Fascists as “troublesome naughty children” in whose power he happens to be. In spite of all that has been said, source does not believe the Pope to be a power in Italy today, because there exists no deep [religious] feeling among the people.’

Such reports had the reliability of a single witness. A spy would gather news from a casual meeting, like a conversation in a bar. Other evidence does not suggest the morale of Italy to have been so low during the summer of 1942. In those months the Italians could still believe in Italian victory. With Rommel they advanced into Egypt, captured Tobruk, threatened to take Cairo. In Russia German forces still advanced with astounding speed. They neared the oil of the Caucasus. The British were devastated by the loss of Malaysia and Singapore and by the height of the U-boat successes. Casualties were not too terrible, most young Italian men served in Italy, war was still an adventure.