More than 30 speakers from Italy, Canada, Germany, the UK and the US will address the Sicily Peace, Security & Prosperity conference in Catania on 7-8 July organised in partnership with Museo Storico dello Sbarco in Sicilia 1943 to commemorate the 80^th anniversary of the landings in Sicily.

The event will be followed by Remembrance Services in Catania and Syracuse on Sunday 9 July. Landing beach memorial events are planned at Avola, Pachino and Gela at daybreak on Monday 10 July. The third 325km Walk for Peace, Security & Prosperity (WRAP) will start on the same day.

The conference, to be held in Catania’s Le Ciminiere Festival Centre, will be opened by Steve Gregory, founder of the International Forum for Peace, Security & Prosperity (IFPSP), a Canadian non-profit corporation which is organising the WRAP.

The VIP opening session will be addressed by Sicilian dignitaries including Army Commander in Sicily, Major General Maurizio Angelo Scardino. Other speakers in the opening session will be UK Ambassador to Italy The Rt Hon Edward Llewellyn; a representative of the US; Canadian senator Tony Loffreda; Colonel Thomas Reiberling, Defense Attache at the Germany embassy to Italy, and Joseph Lonardo, General Counsel at the National Italian American Foundation of Washington DC.

Following the opening, speakers from Italy will investigate the events of the summer of 1943 on Sicily and its people. Dr Alfio Caruso will review the impact on the civilian population; Dr Salvatore Platania of Museo Storico dello Sbarco in Sicilia 1943 will assess how the landings were viewed on the island; Dr Marco Gimmillaro will present the perception of the armed forces and Professor Federico Ciavattone will discuss the role of volunteers in Italy’s Arditi and paratroop formation.

The first international session will be introduced and moderated by Justin Maciejewski, director of London’s National Army Museum. Speakers will be Dr John Curatola from The National World War II Museum, Dr Tim Cook of the Canadian War Museum, and Waymand Brothers, an expert on the African-American Tuskegee airmen.

How the events of the period are memorialised will be the subject of a presentation by Secretary Charles Djou, director of The American Battle Monument Commission (ABMC). The Commonwealth approach will be presented by Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) Italy manager Claudia Scimonelli and Giordano Righetti, also of the CWGC.

Steve Gregory will moderate the session with international experts including Dr Martin Nassua of The German Institute for Defence and Strategic Studies Helmut-Schmidt-Universität/Universität der Bundeswehr, Hamburg and Captain Sara Isgro of the Italian armed forces on reconstruction and peace

The conference’s first day will close with a presentation by Professor Angelo Privitera, Dr Federico Magiavacchi and Dr Franco Scalisi of the Sicilian Historic Motor Vehicle Association which will have an exhibition of its vintage vehicles in Le Ciminiere during the conference.

The conference’s second day will begin with presentations about the British approach to memorialisation from author Gavin Mortimer, an expert in special forces; Chris Lawton and Ian Pearson of the Durham Light Infantry Association; Steve Erskine of The Green Howards Museum; Richard O’Sullivan of the London Irish Rifles Museum; Mark Howard, who will discuss photographs taken in Sicily in 1943 by his grandfather and Michael Leese who will talk about General Oliver Leese, a corps commander in Sicily in 1943.

They will be followed by Dr Angelo Plumari and Antonello Forestiere, Sicilian historians; director of Museo Storico dello Sbarco in Sicilia 1943 Salvatore Maltese and Daniela Villari who will present a “then and now” story about Catania based on her collection of photographs.

The conference’s final session will be a workshop introduced by Major General Scardino and moderated by Robert Desourdis of the US which will aim to develop recommendations for the future of Second World War memorialisation in Sicily.

Following the end of the conference, there will be the screening of the documentary film For Freedom. The secret war of OSS in Italy, 1943-1945 written and directed by Ezio Costanzo.

The conference’s closing music concert will take place in the Amphitheatre in Le Ciminiere at 2030.

Admission to the conference is free for registered delegates.

You can register to attend here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-sicily-peace-security-prosperity-conference-tickets-536972999697