Hitler's Azerbaijani Soldiers

Women and men from all over the world, soldiers and irregulars, spies and traitors, executioners and victims (but rarely innocents) caught in the storm of a four month long battle in the mountains.

This is the first study on the Great Winter Mopping Up Operation in norther Italy (1944-45): the Axis versus the SOE backed Bettola Republic (whose commanding officers were usually British, former Yugolav and women agents), a territory lying between Northern Continental Italy (Po Valley) and Mediterranean Liguria, where an Allied landing was expected. Had it taken place, Genoa would have been turned into a surrounded Stalingrad, because between the Po Valley and the sea lie the Northern Appennine mountains, the seat of the Bettola Republic and of other, smaller Partisan states forming a large mountain fortress. It was crucial, for the Axis, to destroy this Kessel (cauldron, pocket) by attacking Bettola in mass (ten of thousands of men and several divisions and brigades were involved in the various phases of the onslaught, the largest anti-Partisan operation of the war west of the Balkans). The spearhead of the attack was the Turkistan Divison, composed of German, Italian and Soviet (most of all Turkic-speakers from Central Asia, the Volga region and the Caucasus) soldiers. Because of its grotesque and tragic characters and brutal settings and events, this book will appeal anyone interested in true or fictional stories, while, due to its accuracy and documentation, it will catch the interest of the academic world.