When British and American troops entered Naples on Oct. 1, 1943, they became the new rulers of hundreds of thousands of half-starved civilians and a broken city. Before withdrawing, the German occupiers had conducted a punctilious three-week campaign of sabotage and theft. They looted all the food and fuel.

They blew up the city’s gas, water and sewage piping. They destroyed its port facilities and much of the adjoining neighborhood and scuttled more than 300 ships in the harbor. They destroyed 75% of the major bridges, stole nearly 90% of the city’s trucks, buses and trams, demolished railroad tracks and tunnels, and left mines and booby traps everywhere.