In this unforgettable narrative, Corti depicts the war from the perspective of the average Italian soldier, capturing its boredom and absurdity along with brief periods of savagery, terror, and death. Painting vivid pictures of the sights, sounds, and smells of war, he shows how these men fought alongside the Allies against the Germans. They fought without hatred, driven by a sense of duty and love for their country and a desire to quickly put an end to a war that was destroying so many lives. Corti superbly relates the wandering of the remnant of Italian officers and men as they sought to reestablish themselves as Italian soldiers. The Last Soldiers of the King tells the story of a proud people forced to endure death, poverty and the virtual destruction of their nation.

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Product Description

In this unforgettable narrative, Corti depicts the war from the perspective of the average Italian soldier, capturing its boredom and absurdity along with brief periods of savagery, terror, and death. Painting vivid pictures of the sights, sounds, and smells of war, he shows how these men fought alongside the Allies against the Germans. They fought without hatred, driven by a sense of duty and love for their country and a desire to quickly put an end to a war that was destroying so many lives. Corti superbly relates the wandering of the remnant of Italian officers and men as they sought to reestablish themselves as Italian soldiers. The Last Soldiers of the King tells the story of a proud people forced to endure death, poverty and the virtual destruction of their nation.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #918377 in Books
• Published on: 2003-11
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 344 pages

From the Publisher
Translated by Manuela Arundel. Foreword by Carlo D' Este.

About the Author
Eugenio Corti was born in Besana Brianza, Italy, in 1921. He marked his debut as a writer with Few Returned and went on to write major works of historical fiction. One of his most recent books has been published in English as The Red Horse.

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Customer Reviews

Italy's war to save itself 1943-1945
I really enjoyed Corti's book about the Italian retreat from the Russian Front and I wanted to know more of what became of him after it.
Last Soldiers of the King, gave me more of the same and tied up loose ends for me.
Being interested in the history and actions of the Italian Army in WW2, this book sheds light on the Italian contribution to the Allies cause from 1943 on and the whole situation for Italy as a country at that time.
Like his first book, there is not a lot of combat depicted here, but what he does detail, shows the reader what it was like to fight in Italy.
Corti again, does a very good job of showing national differences in military and attitudes of the combatants.
He does play a fair hand to all involved and while the first book had many instances of the German disdain/mistreatmment of the Italians and the hard feelings of Italians towards the Germans, this book does show Cortis respect to the German soldier.
You also get a glimpse of the relationships between the British, Americans and Italians.
To me, the one drawback of this last book are the long passages related to religion.
Corti seems to be a very religious person and occasionally that comes through like a lecture in this book.
But through it all, you can feel what a long hard struggle the battle for Italy was and the post-war strife looming on the horizon.

The Return of the Italian Soldier-Philosopher
"The Last Soldiers of the King" is a continuation of an Italian soldier's memoirs of World War II, which he first related in "Few Returned".

The first work, "Few Returned", was the author's reminiscences of fighting as a young lieutenant in the Italian Army side by side with the Germans against a common foe, the Soviets on the Eastern Front as the Germans and Italians retreated during December 1942 - January 1943. That work was suffused with philosophical musings about the state of man juxtaposed with the state of war, interspersed with misgivings about having Nazis as allies and recollections from his diary about this time in his life.

The second work, "The Last Soldiers of the King", provides additional insight into life as an Italian soldier in World War II after King Victor Emmanuel gave Mussolini his walking papers in July 1943 and, in effect, placed Mussolini under house arrest. (Nazi commando Otto Skorzeny subsequently famously rescued Mussolini and brought him to Germany.) When Italy capitulated to the Allies shortly thereafter the few German forces in Italy became occupation troops as the Germans invaded the northern portion of the country. In the meantime, the Italian Army had essentially disbanded, some joining the Nazis in the north and some fleeing to the south (along with the King, who had left no instructions for the defense of Rome upon his departure).

The new government formed a new army: the "Corpo Italiano di Liberazione" (Italian Liberation Army). Author Eugenio Corti, who had fled south with other Italian Army soldiers, became a member of artillery and anti-aircraft units in the Italian Liberation Army. He infuses his accounts of his experiences in this new army with his Christian faith and the sometimes nettlesome demands that faith put on him, e.g., he struggled, albeit successfully, against the sexual promiscuity, and prostitution, that were the hallmarks of the experiences of other soldiers.

He never seems to lose his faith in God, arguing that belief in God acts as a temporizing force on the conduct and nature of warfare. He also never seems to lose his patriotism or faith in Italy, despairing at the defeatism evident in many of his fellow soldiers and countrymen. (He discovers, much to his dismay, that many, if not most, Italians are not even aware that there are any regular Italian forces fighting the Germans after Italy surrenderd to the Allies in September 1943.)

As a Christian he believes that fascism in any form, including Nazism (which he argues was a misguided racial offshoot of socialism), and communism (which he especially decries as evil) are wrong. He also appears to be conflicted in his feelings toward Jews, on the one hand blaming them for Marxism (and hence communism) and on the other hand stating compassion for them as victims of World War II.

The book is an interesting look at the last two years of World War II in Italy, through the faith-based perspective of an Italian patriot and soldier.