Museum of Allied Forces Rome

Welcome to the Historical Museum of the Allied Forces in Italy in World War II.

Salvatore Rizzacasa avid collector of historical material of the 30s and 40s years of last century, has designed and implemented this important historic site.

The Museum is located in Via Tolmino 6 within the Hotel Relais 6 in Rome. This little jewel of architectual building, dating back to the 30s, was the seat during the Second World War of a logistics base for the Allied forces during the liberation of Rome in June 1944 ....

The Uniforms

Ground Transportation

1940: United States Army, in response to the rising political tension in Europe, decided to make a new type of reconnaissance vehicle. It follows the "Scout Car" U.S. Army, which in just three months led to the creation of the first unit 4x4, better known as the Jeep. To achieve this, the Army invited 135 manufacturers to participate in a tender, which initially included a $ 175,000 contract.
Only three car manufacturers proved to be involved in the project: Willys-Overland of Toledo, Ford Motor Company of Detroit and American Bantam in Butler (Pennsylvania). The three companies have built prototypes for testing in record time. The chief engineer of Bantam developed, together with a group of company executives, the company realized a project in 49 days.
Delmar G. Roos, Vice President of Engineering Willys-Overland, Willys Quad designed the model, while Ford built the Model GP (General Purpose), nicknamed Pygmy, equipped with a modified engine Ford / Ferguson for agricultural use. Each company delivered its prototype in the summer of 1940 and the Army was authorized to build 70 units.
The Armed Forces received the first delivery in November 1940 at Camp Holabird, Md.. Each of the three models produced exceeded the limit of 590 kg, and requested the Army soon realized that it was too low and decided to increase the supply later.
With a number of changes and improvements, the Willys Quad became the MA model, and later in the MB model. For the U.S. Army and the world became known as the Jeep instead.
According to some, the name Jeep comes from the initials "GP", which in military jargon was an abbreviation for "General Purpose". Others argue that the vehicle is named "Eugene the Jeep," a cartoon character Popeye. Whatever its true origin, the word Jeep has entered the international vocabulary and generally identifies all off-road vehicles. Jeep is the same model who became a symbol of the Second World War.
In view of the end of the war, Willys-Overland began to plan the production of civilian Jeep models. After experimenting with a pilot model developed on the military version (called the CJ-1, which stood for "Civilian Jeep") and a prototype (CJ-2), the standard version, dubbed Universal Jeep CJ-2A, was introduced in 'Summer of 1945.

Original Douglas C47 Skytrain Model

The C-47 Skytrain was the most common means of transport aircraft used by the allied forces and has operated in every theater of war. A version was also built under license from the Japanese (the Showa L2D face to face), as well as by the Russians (the Lisunov Li-2). It 'been known under various names (C-47, C-53, R4D) and names (Skytrain / Skytrooper / Dakota / "gooney Bird"), under the name DC-3. DC-3B was later hired by the airlines after the Civil War. A special civil transport model was designed on the basis of the C-47 as the C-117, but only seventeen units were built. The C-47 was famous for its reliability, versatility and ability to carry loads much heavier and only on specific official rules permitted. The historical campaigns of conflict involving the C-47 were the "flying Hump" (transport logisitc and military personnel in the Himalayan mountain ranges), the descent of paratroopers behind enemy lines on D-Day, and after the war was in divided Berlin airlift. The C-47 has been so useful that it has been used by U.S. Military Forces in World War II, Korea and Vietnam, and many are still in operation in several countries in the world today.