Remembering the scenes in the Italian capital in 1939, just before the outbreak of the Second World War - for Sunday Miscellany on RTÉ Radio 1, and first broadcast in 1976, listen to Rome on the eve of World War II by Mervyn Wall above.
Anyone who travelled in western Europe in the years before the outbreak of the Second World War was aware of a tangible atmosphere. Everyone knew that war was inevitable and expected that it might result in the entire ruin of the civilisation they knew, the utter destruction of great cities and the death of vast numbers by gas attack, as well as by high explosive.
The atmosphere in France was one of fatalistic gloom, the economy was strike-ridden and the people just didn't want to think about the future.
In Germany you got the impression of a vast, disciplined people, pressing outwards on their frontiers, threatening at any moment to overflow into the neighbouring countries...
Listen to more from Sunday Miscellany here.
