Richard Hammond

Phew!

Well this is not a new insight whatsoever, but Lecce is absolutely stunning.

Hopefully there was actually plenty of war production material. I recommended these papers to JF on the expectation that there would be.

Clue 4

Clue 3

Pane e pomodoro beach

Clue 2

Statue of Niccolò Piccinni

Want a break from doomscrolling? Guess which Italian city I am currently in. Picture clue 1:

Very kind, thanks!

No this specifically is new to me I think. I knew about the German AA, ASW and comms personnel that sometimes served on Italian ship, but not this.

I'm really fascinated by their tracking of the use of the terms 'economic warfare' and 'economic sanctions' in printed works. Great research, really interesting.

Many thanks! May I email/DM with a quick related question, actually?

Thanks!

He *never* stops talking about them.

I guess I should also tag @dmorganowen.bsky.social because boats. And then I’ll stop tagging

Hmmm thought I’d tagged you too @alanallport.bsky.social but apparently not

Oh also, this article is the culmination of research that prompted this earlier post about cheese shortages on Sicily (see Table 1 in the article):
bsky.app/profile/rjha...

Anyhow, this is open access, so please read and share widely. Hope you enjoy it.
@crusaderproject.bsky.social @vandawilcox.bsky.social @jfb1066.bsky.social @marcusfaulkner.bsky.social @ww2tv.bsky.social @adamtooze.bsky.social

for the islands, which were especially vulnerable in this regard, the war at sea/blockade played a key part in ensuring that food shortages became so serious. As we note in the conclusion, we see this article as a small step towards linking these themes more generally in the history of the SWW. 4/
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was fundamentally undermined prior to the supposed 'turning point' or collapse of late 42/early 43 that's often pointed to, when large scale bombing of Italy began. Rather than this being primarily the result of bombing and/or military defeats overseas, we argue it was about food, and 3/
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These themes are: the importance of the war at sea; the wartime 'battle for food'; and wartime homes fronts and public opinion/war support. By examining and linking these three through the lens of our case study, we argue that, at least in the case of Sicily and Sardinia, the Italian home front 2/
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Sage Journals: Discover world-class research Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

New open access article by @fabiodeninno.bsky.social and I available here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

It focuses on the impacts of blockade on Sicily and Sardinia, 1940-43. It links 3 themes that, in our view, have too often been siloed in the historiography of the SWW (esp Italy). 1/
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Just do what I do and make up your own terminology: virtually anything you say sounds plausible.

Good point re Roma! Guessing the source isn’t clear precisely what the 350,000 figure meant? Isn’t that always the way…

One thing that goes much better over 1942/early 1943 is construction of small warships. Yes things like MAS etc but I’d also highlight the Corvette program as a very good example of this

For example, the construction program at that point in 1942 might have been stated to be 350,000 tons, but worth bearing in mind that 350,000 is close to the overall total of merchant shipping constructed over the course of the *entire* ’fascist war’ (1940-43)

Materials absolutely an issue (both overall quantities and in terms of internal competition for what they had), but I would also add that there was a serious shortage of high skilled/specialist labour. Also, while large ‘construction programmes’ were often announce, much less was actually produced

‘No way, the Quad God never loses’ I confidently state, despite last having watched figure skating four years ago, and having never heard of Ilia Malinin as recently as one week ago.

Not even close in the end!

I mean It’s certainly interesting to me, but don’t put yourself out on my part

It wouldn’t surprise me if that was require. I don’t recall seeing specific instructions re construction of the KTs in eg the Kaufmann material at the IWM but that’s maybe the wrong place for that sort of detail