There are no such thing as an easy victory in war but after triumph in Tunisia, the sweeping success of the Sicilian invasion, and with the Italian surrender, the Allies were confident that they would be in Rome before Christmas 1943.
And yet it didn't happen. Hitler ordered his forces to dig in and fight for every yard, thus setting the stage for one of the grimmest and most attritional campaigns of the Second World War.
By the start of 1944, the Allies found themselves coming up against the Gustav Line: a formidable barrier of wire, minefields, bunkers and booby traps, woven into a giant chain of mountains and river valleys that stretched the width of Italy where at its strongest point perched the Abbey of Monte Cassino.
It would take five long bitter winter months and the onset of summer before the Allies could finally bludgeon their way north and capture Rome. By then, more than 75,000 troops and civilians had been killed and the historic abbey and entire towns and villages had been laid waste.
Following a rich cast of characters from both sides - from frontline infantry to aircrew, from clerks to battlefield commanders, and from politicians and civilians caught up in the middle of the maelstrom - James Holland has drawn widely on diaries, letters and contemporary sources to write the definitive account of this brutal battle. The result is a compelling and often heart-breaking narrative, told in the moment, as the events played out, and from the perspective of those who lived, fought and died there.
Review: This book is an account by the military historian James Holland of the five months’ attritional battle that took place south of Rome between January and May 1944 as part of the Second World War Italian campaign. Following their success in North Africa, the Allied forces invaded Sicily and southern Italy in the summer and autumn, respectively, of 1943. The Italian dictator Mussolini was deposed and the Italian government signed an armistice. The Germans subsequently occupied the northern part of Italy, whilst the Allied armies pushed northwards with the aim of seizing the capital Rome, expecting little resistance. At the start of 1944, resources were diverted from Italy to England in preparation for the D-Day landings in France scheduled for late spring/early summer of that year. The campaign in Italy continued, with the objective of diverting German resources from France and the Eastern Front.
The mountainous terrain of the Italian peninsula lent itself to a defensive campaign in which the Germans could establish blocking lines in the mountains from where they could overlook Allied movements in the valleys below. By January 1944, the Allies had reached one of the strongest of these defensive lines, the Gustav Line, centred on Monte Cassino, with the town of Cassino at its foot and a Benedictine abbey at its summit. The book, based on diaries, letters, contemporary accounts and interviews with survivors, describes the successive attempts to break through. The amphibious landing at Anzio north of the Gustav Line, in an attempt to draw some of the defenders away from Cassino, is also described. As well as the commanders, such as Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, commander of German forces in Italy, General Harold Alexander, commander of Allied forces in Italy, and General Mark Clark, commander of the United States Fifth Army, the book follows the fortunes of rank and file soldiers and airmen, as well as civilians caught up in the conflict. The Allies finally broke through the Gustav Line and broke out from the Anzio bridgehead in May. On 5th June, Mark Clark led his Fifth Army into Rome. The following day, the D-Day landings in Normandy took place and the Italian campaign was consigned to the back pages. Interestingly, Mark Clark has been criticised heavily for his decision to turn the Fifth Army towards Rome rather than encircle the German forces retreating from the Gustav Line, but the author presents a strong argument that there were sound military reasons for this decision.
The book is a well-researched and detailed account of this part of the Italian campaign and included numerous photographs and maps. However, I found some of the maps confusing since not all the symbols are explained in the keys to the maps and there appear to be some typographic errors in the names of some of the locations. A further geographical error occurs in the extensive notes and bibliography in which initially the town of Otley is stated correctly as being in West Yorkshire, but later on its location is described as Lancashire. These are minor criticisms, however, and this highly detailed account of a gruelling battle will appeal to all interested in military history.
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