Under Avalanche

Civilian life in the path of the Allied invasion of Mainland Italy, September 1943

80th Anniversary 2023.

Translated by Richard Mollowen, with Cecilia Vancheri

“American soldiers go past in their rugged uniforms, steel helmets. They look at us with their innocent eyes … It seems impossible that any of them could ever drop a bomb”
Autumn 1943 : the Italian town of Eboli, directly in the path of “Operation Avalanche”. One woman’s sensitive, determined, appalled diary.
First translation into English (& by a son of one of the Allied bomber-crews) of “Diario Di Una Donna: Eboli 1943-44” (anonymous)
brings back to life an ‘ordinary woman’, yet truly remarkable diarist.
A living, direct eye-witness account – weeks and months in fear, bombardment, invasion, terror
“Classic Women’s History: from innocence, through trauma, to development of a mindset for survival”
“Terrifyingly topical”