An Englishman Abroad Soe Agent Dick Mallaby Italy 19431945 1st Edition Gianluca Barneschi by Gianluca Barneschi 9781472835444, 9781472835475, 1472835441, 1472835476 instant download after payment.

Based on 20 years of research, Gianluca Barneschi has uncovered the true story of a real-life James Bond. 

The debonair Special Operations Executive agent Richard 'Dick' Mallaby was the first Briton to be sent to Italy as an SOE operative, parachuted unceremoniously into Lake Como in August 1943. Arrested and initially tortured by the Italian authorities, he managed to sweet-talk his way out of trouble, and helped Marshal Pietro Badoglio and King Victor Emmanuel III escape to the Allied lines. 

He also helped negotiate the resulting armistice with Italy, for which he was awarded the Military Cross.

He was back in action in 1945, when he crossed into Fascist-controlled northern Italy from Switzerland but was swiftly captured and interrogated by the SS. Narrowly avoiding a firing squad once again, he helped to secure the surrender of 800,000 Italian Based German Armed & Police Forces in May 1945, just before VE-Day. 

Gianluca Barneschi is an author, historian, and attorney in the field of radio and telecommunications Among several newspapers and magazines, his essays have also been published in 'Nuova Storia Contemporanea' and featured in various Italian television documentaries, having gained literary recognition. His debut work, 'Balvano 1944 - The Secrets of an Ignored Railway Disaster', was the winner of the Basilicata Prize 2005 in the historical non-fiction category. In 2013, The Englishman Who Traveled with the King and Badoglio - the Missions of the Special Agent Dick Mallaby, was the recipient of the Cerruglio Prize 2014 for historical essays and has reached its third updated edition in Italy. Barneschi has spent 20 years researching the story of Richard Mallaby's missions and lives primarily in Rome with his family.

(Translated into English by Author).