by Janet Kinrade Dethick
This book relates what happened in the Comune of Cortona during the latter part of the Second World War, between the Armistice of 8 September 1943 and the first days of July 1944. Recounted by the village priests, partisan Bruno Valli, writer and evacuee Renata Orengo (wife of Jewish author Giacomo Debenedetti), civilian Dr. Giancarlo Zenone, Lt Charles W. H. Ridley MC and the men responsible for writing the War Diairies of 1 Canadian Armored Brigade, 4 and 78 British Infantry Divisions and 6 British Armoured Division, it shows how living under constant threat from both occupying German ground forces and aggressive Allied air attacks affected the daily lives of ordinary people in the months leading up to the passage of the front.
