Brigate Rosse

In the aftermath of the Second World War Italy had the largest communist party of any Western European nation. With the extreme left of the political spectrum barred from participation in government, industrial and political strife were commonplace in the Italy of the 1960s, frequently resulting in violent clashes between the police and left-wing activists. Lurking in the background, neo-fascists sought to stoke the flames with a series of murderous bombings designed to provoke a return to an authoritarian state.

From this grew the Brigate Rosse – the Red Brigade – organising themselves following the example of the Latin American urban guerrilla movements. The Brigate Rosse emerged in Trento in 1970, though their early activities were troubled by infighting between extremist and moderate wings of the movement.

Nevertheless, the movement spread to Rome, Genoa, and Venice by the mid-1970s, and began to diversify its activities. During the following years, it became famous for several high-profile kidnappings of judges and industrialists, the kidnapping and murder of the Italian statesman Aldo Moro in 1978, and the kidnapping of US Brigadier General James L Dozier, the Deputy Chief-of-Staff for Southern European land forces of NATO in 1981.

Such actions caused a deep rift within the movement and the loss of almost all popular support and public sympathy, while prompting an intensive investigation and prosecution by the Italian authorities. Many members were arrested and betrayed their comrades under interrogation: others were forced to flee abroad. Ultimately, the Brigate Rosse were destroyed.

Drawing upon decades of research with the help of official documentation and the recollections of participants, Brigate Rosse is a detailed study of a major armed leftist movement that shook the fundaments of the Italian state of the 1970s and the 1980s.  

"...will be of great interest to military historians." AMPS Indianapolis

"I appreciated the detailed information and analysis." Historical Miniatures Gaming Society

"David Francois has jammed a lot of information into this volume, but I still enjoyed the read and was able to finish it over three evenings. The period black and white photographs are all quite interesting and are well captioned. The color illustrations from Renato Dalmaso, Luca Canossa, and Tom Cooper are great. If you own any of the previous releases in the Helion @ War series, you know what you are getting. If this is your initial entry into this series, you will be pleased.....Recommended." IPMS/USA

"The events recorded in this book took place up to over 50 years ago, so to anyone younger than that this is perhaps all they might know of these events. I am old enough to remember the news of these things taking place, the murder of Aldo Moro in particular. It was a disturbing time, and it is good that people in Italy can live there today without the fears that these actions generated. I still find it strange to read history books covering events I can remember." Robin Buckland, Military Model Scene