‘Toughs and Thugs’: The Mazzini Society and Political Warfare amongst Italian POWs in India, 1941–43

During the early days of the Second World War, the British government created a number of clandestine agencies whose mission was to undertake covert intelligence and propaganda work. One of the problems these organizations, such as SOE and the PWE, experienced was the lack of qualified linguists who could be used in the murky world of espionage, political warfare and counter-propaganda. By early 1941, unable to find large numbers of qualified people in Britain or the Empire, Whitehall – in desperation – looked towards the United States with its large Italian emigre community and the little known anti-fascist organization known as the Mazzini Society. This article is a study in failure. Using British attempts to forge a Free Italy movement between 1941 and 1943, it examines the sometimes farcical attempts by SOE, and later the PWE, in recruiting Italo-Americans for clandestine political warfare work in the fight against fascist Italy.