Michigan (2020) h/b 321pp £43.95 (ISBN 9780472132201)
P. is an Associate Professor of Classics, Ancient History and Egyptology at Swansea University. He has considerable experience in archaeological digs in the Middle East but has latterly focussed on the protection of cultural sites in times of war or civil unrest, partly in association with UK Blue Shield.
This book is a detailed description of a few events that happened in Italy in 1943/44, why they happened and what was learned from them, even contemporaneously. Between 24 August and 26 September 1943, nine Allied bombing missions were launched on the area around the archaeological site of Pompeii. Some 160 bombs (mostly light in weight) fell on the site and caused a variety of damage to some 21 insulae or units. The site was not the target of the raids but lay sufficiently close to the actual target (roads and railways) to ensure that, given the inherent lack of accuracy in the bombing techniques of the period, the site was bound to be hit by a proportion of the bombs released.
Part 1 is a very detailed description of what took place (individual damage on the site can be linked to specific sorties), why the sorties took place (to deny the Germans the opportunity to reinforce their troops seeking to dislodge the Salerno landings), and of the serious investigations which were commissioned by the Allied Command between 1944 and 1946 to identify how the cultural sites came to be damaged.
Part 2 is a description of the efforts made by the Allied Command (starting in North Africa) to protect the more important cultural sites in Sicily and Italy. These efforts related exclusively to preventing further harm once an area had been liberated. No relief was given during the prosecution of any fighting nor in any bombing which preceded action on the ground—as indeed equally applied to civilian collateral damage. A Sub-Commission on Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives within the Allied Military Government was established before the invasion of Sicily to implement the Hague Convention of 1904, which at that stage provided the only relevant international standard. Given how lightly staffed MFAA was and the lack of leverage available to the captains and majors who ran it, its achievements were surprisingly tangible. Debate about what happened at Pompeii and Naples significantly improved the treatment of Rome, Florence and Siena when they were later occupied. Many of the personnel involved had previous archaeological or academic experience—Mortimer Wheeler, who commanded an artillery unit in North Africa, makes a number of acerbic and self-promoting appearances.
Part 3 describes the tensions between protection of cultural sites and military necessity (which it was understood would always prevail) with particular reference to the requisitioning of the Royal Palace and the National Museum in Naples.
The Hague Convention of 1954 does not resolve these tensions, although it does give more weight to protection, and P. argues that the Italian experience and the lessons learned then are still relevant to relearn even in these days when a bomb can be directed down a chimney in Baghdad by someone driving a screen in High Wycombe. He specifically canvasses good previous research presented in ways that troops on the ground will relate to, and close communication with the local cultural experts, including taking advice on what the locals regard as culturally sensitive.
The wealth of detail is prodigious, including five Appendices relating to the raids themselves, fifty five pages of notes and six pages of bibliography. It is all nevertheless presented in an eminently readable and punchy way, with many enlivening individual anecdotes. P. is also scrupulous not to import into 1943 the sensitivities and prejudices of 2020. There are also 34 relevant maps and illustrations.
As far as the general reader is concerned the subject matter will no doubt appeal more to the World War II aficionado than to the student of Pompeii’s town planning, but for an off-piste foray for the members of CfA the main text comes highly recommended.
Roger Barnes