Description
Object description
14 letters (MS) written during 1942 by an Italian Army officer to his family in Rome (with typed transcriptions and English translation) while serving on the Eastern Front with the 82nd Infantry Regiment (82 Reggimento Fanteria) `Torino’, part of 52nd Infantry Division `Torino’, Italian Expeditionary Corps / Italian Army in Russia, giving some excellent insights into his experiences of the second year of Operation `Barbarossa’, including the effects of the Russian winter on the Italian troops, his camp following of `lost’ Russian children, his sense of isolation and longing for home, trying to learn Russian, complaining about the baneful influence of the `mafia’ (racketeering?) amongst the soldiers, the poor state of his health and being plagued by bugs and insects in the summer months, daily routines, the prevailing boredom mixed with the anxiety of being in constant readiness for action, their proximity to a “whole village” of Russians displaced from the combat zone and surviving in desperate conditions, their own makeshift accommodation, expressing his frequent dark feelings of futility and apathy, not even able to look forward to a return to Italy as it means having to “start from the beginning all over again at quite an advanced age” (he was 24 at the time of writing), and dealing with Soviet POWs (the Germans “shoot them, we are more sentimental…”); with 7 photographs, including a portrait and snapshots of Caressa in uniform.
Content description
14 letters (MS) written during 1942 by an Italian Army officer to his family in Rome (with typed transcriptions and English translation) while serving on the Eastern Front with the 82nd Infantry Regiment (82 Reggimento Fanteria) `Torino’, part of 52nd Infantry Division `Torino’, Italian Expeditionary Corps / Italian Army in Russia, giving some excellent insights into his experiences of the second year of Operation `Barbarossa’, including the effects of the Russian winter on the Italian troops, his camp following of `lost’ Russian children, his sense of isolation and longing for home, trying to learn Russian, complaining about the baneful influence of the `mafia’ (racketeering?) amongst the soldiers, the poor state of his health and being plagued by bugs and insects in the summer months, daily routines, the prevailing boredom mixed with the anxiety of being in constant readiness for action, their proximity to a “whole village” of Russians displaced from the combat zone and surviving in desperate conditions, their own makeshift accommodation, expressing his frequent dark feelings of futility and apathy, not even able to look forward to a return to Italy as it means having to “start from the beginning all over again at quite an advanced age” (he was 24 at the time of writing), and dealing with Soviet POWs (the Germans “shoot them, we are more sentimental…”); with 7 photographs, including a portrait and snapshots of Caressa in uniform.
History note
Cataloguer SWW
