When Italy surrendered in 1943, it sparked a diverse resistance movement of anti-German, anti-fascist partisans who rose up against German occupation. This book explores the tactics, organizational structure and equipment of the brave Italian resistance fighters, who knew exactly what was at stake when operating against their German occupiers. Beginning with low-level sabotage and assassinations, the groups grew until spring 1944 when they numbered around 100,000, and as the Allies advanced to the Gothic line, a remarkable, unified partisan command structure was created. The partisans began to work in close co-ordination with the Allies, receiving British SOE and American OSS liaison teams as well as supplies of weapons. The German response was eye-watering in its ferocity and brutality, as the SS and Italian RSI looked to eradicate the partisans once and for all when the Allied advance stalled in Autumn 1944. But when the Allies made their final breakthrough in the last weeks of the war the partisans rose in force to pile the pressure on the retreating Wehrmacht. From an expert on Italian military history in World War II, this work provides an exhaustively researched, sumptuously illustrated guide to the men and women who fought a desperate struggle against occupation, as well as the German and Italian fascist security forces unleashed against them. Pier Paolo Battistelli earned his PhD in military history at the University of Padua. A scholar of German and Italian politics and strategy throughout World War II, he works both in Italy and abroad writing titles and essays on military history subjects. He is a contributor to the Italian Army Historical Office and has written numerous books for Osprey. Piero Crociani acts as a consultant for the Italian Army Historical Branch and is the author of several articles, essays and books on Italian military history. Amongst his published words are The Albanians in the Italian Armed Forces (Rome, 2001); The Neapolitan Army 1806–15 (Milan, 1987) and, together with Virgilio Ilari and Giancarlo Boeri, A Military History of Murat's Kingdom (1806–15) (Milan, 2007). Peter Dennis was inspired by contemporary magazines such as Look and Learn, leading him to study Illustration at Liverpool Art College. Peter has since contributed to hundreds of books, predominantly on historical subjects, including many Osprey titles. A keen wargamer and modelmaker, he is based in Nottinghamshire, UK. Reference Book