Advanced Allied (1 results)

Soft cover. Condition: Fair. Two consecutive issues of this field newspaper printed on economy wartime paper, 29x42cm. 4, 4pp with b/w maps and photos. Fair only, browned with fold tears, minor loss (generally not affecting content), irregularly folded with rubbing along folds, and previous owner's neat ms annotations. The paper was launched in 1941. At the time these were issued (20 and 21 April 1945), the British Eighth Army and US Fifth Army were well advanced in the Spring Offensive in Italy, which would soon result in the surrender of all Axis forces in Italy (6 April - 2 May 1945). The Eighth had just bypassed the difficult final Senio River defences and entered the Po Plains during Operation Buckland / the Battle of Argenta Gap (12-19 April). Both issues report on progress with this Offensive as well as the wider war effort and the military, politicians, diplomats, and civilians involved in it. Issue 160 for example leads on the Fifth's approach on Bologna, and the Eighth's taking of Portomaggiore after house-to-house fighting. Among other content is Churchill's announcement and details of a forthcoming visit by British MPs to several named concentration camps "so that they could have visual, first hand proof of German atrocities" (n159 pp1, 3; n160: p3).