Download or read book The Invasion of Italy a Walking Battlefield Tour from Salerno to Rome written by Robert Irving Desourdis and published by . This book was released on 2020-12-24 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Italy, despite the recent COVID impact, is a beautiful country where Americans, Britons, Indians, New Zealanders, Canadians, French, Algerians, Tunisians, Moroccans and Poles fought the Germans and Italian Axis partners in World War II. Though there are a few well-known mass-media books covering the history in narrative from with period grainy black and white photos, there are no such books that walk the ground with leading historians, pointing out the scenes of the action and viewing the memorials to the lives lost, particularly the military cemeteries. This book will provide sweeping imagery of the key sites with transcribed on-scene oratory provided by the well-known Italian Campaign historian and tour guide Frank de Planta de Wildenberg, These former British and American soldiers, now history tour guides, walk the ground with our tour group so that we can experience the sites of the Allied-led Campaign on the Italian Peninsula. You see breathtaking views on the shores and in the mountains, particularly the beautiful villages, and the great visibility afforded the Germans in and around all three locations: Salerno, Cassino and Anzio.Frank de Planta de Wildenberg, the lead history guide, has done dozens of tours on these battlefields. He provides access into little known areas tramped by the soldiers who fought there and now often visited by British Army groups to hear Frank's depth of knowledge in what has become his life's work upon retirement from the Army. His wit and wisdom come through his veteran stories and personal experiences in the British Army. He read Modern History at King's College, University of London and was commissioned into The Royal Anglian Regiment in 1984. He retired in 1991 and joined the Army Reserve during which time he commanded East Midlands Officers' Training Corps in Nottingham and conducted numerous battlefield tours in Italy. Frank de Planta was strongly motivated by Fred Majdalany's personal account of Cassino, which sparked an intense interest and he now devotes much of his free time to this fascinating and highly controversial series of battles that, ultimately, led to a costly breakthrough in May/June 1944. His interest then shifted to include Salerno and Anzio, parts of the Italian Campaign that are inextricably linked to the Cassino story.
Download or read book A Walking Tour of Italy s WWII Battlefields from the Anzio Landings to Rome written by Frank de Planta de Wildenberg and published by Nova Science Publishers. This book was released on 2021 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Italian Campaign is truly an amazing, and often heartbreaking, story, and it certainly generates sympathy as well as respect for the soldiers who fought there, particularly the sacrificed Texas and Polish soldiers as well as the British "D-Day Dodgers." In addition to the British soldiers, you gain a new and far greater appreciation of the men in the 36th Texas and Polish Divisions because of their commitment, heroism and sacrifice in these battles, much less the many others from multiple nations who fought in Italy in 1943 and 1944. This book is the third title in the NOVA Science Publishers Homeland Security Series presenting a walking tour of World War II battle sites in mainland Italy: 1. A Walking Tour of Italy's WWII Battlefields: From the Salerno Landings to San Pietro Infine 2. A Walking Tour of Italy's WWII Battlefields: Breaking the Gustav and Hitler Lines 3. A Walking Tour of Italy's WWII Battlefields: From the Anzio Landings to Rome. These books were derived from the sights and sounds experienced during Marty Gane's South Mountain Expeditions tour called WWII Invasion of Italy: From Sicily to Rome, conducted in September 2014. The late Edwin Cole Bearss was the lead South Mountain historian for the tour, and helped select our expert history guide British Lt Col (Retd) Frank de Planta de Wildenberg, a deservedly renown Italian battlefield tour leader. Franks designed the tour route, providing the specific strategic and tactical on-the-ground details experienced at each tour stand site. Ed Bearss provided insightful commentary and likened situations to his own combat experience as a Marine in the WWII Pacific theater. After experiencing the disaster of the underpowered US 36th Division at the Rapido crossing as described in Book 1 and the four battles for the high ground around Montecassino to break the Gustav Line from Book 2, the walking tour from Anzio to Rome demonstrates more horrific losses of men and material for little gain. The cost of attacking the "tough old gut," includes the American Rangers at Cisterna and the British in the World War I trench warfare of the Lobster Claws above Anzio. Added to these losses are the men and woman behind the lines, the doctors and nurses, lost to the terror shelling by long-range cannon like Anzio Annie, reminiscent of the Paris Gun during WWI. The late Ed Bearss history tours always emphasize the importance of the terrain in victory or defeat for the ground soldier, his or her units, and the armies as a whole. From the Alban Hills, German artillery observers could see everything that moved on the Anzio Plan, call in indirect fire from many guns with impunity, or lob shells into the port area miles behind the fighting. Just as at Salerno, the Allies had to capture this high ground to protect the beachhead, and once through the Velletri Gap, move north toward Rome"--
Download or read book A Walking Tour of Italy s WWII Battlefields Breaking the Gustav and Hitler Lines written by Frank de Planta de Wildenberg and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Italian Campaign is truly an amazing, and often heartbreaking, story, and it certainly generates sympathy as well as respect for the soldiers who fought there, particularly the sacrificed Texas and Polish soldiers as well as the British "D-Day Dodgers." In addition to the British soldiers, you gain a new and far greater appreciation of the men in the 36th Texas and Polish Divisions because of their commitment, heroism and sacrifice in these battles, much less the many others from multiple nations who fought in Italy in 1943 and 1944. This book is the second title in the NOVA Science Publishers Homeland Security Series presenting a walking tour of World War II battle sites in mainland Italy:A Walking Tour of Italy's WWII Battlefields: From the Salerno Landings to San Pietro InfineA Walking Tour of Italy's WWII Battlefields: Breaking the Gustav and Hitler LinesA Walking Tour of Italy's WWII Battlefields: From the Anzio Landings to Rome.These books were derived from the sights and sounds experienced while on Marty Gane's South Mountain Expeditions 2014 tour called WWII Invasion of Italy: From Sicily to Rome. The late Edwin Cole Bearss [1] was the lead South Mountain historian for the tour, and helped select our expert history guide British Lt Col (Retd) Frank de Planta de Wildenberg, a deservedly renown Italian battlefield tour leader. Franks designed the tour route, providing the specific strategic and tactical on-the-ground details we experienced at each stand (tour location) we visited. Ed Bearss provided insightful commentary and likened situations to his own combat experience as a Marine in the WWII Pacific theater.This book provides the images and narration of Frank and Ed as we were taken on the tour of battle sites as the Allies tried four times to break through the Gustav Line and then another battle for the Hitler Line. Nowhere has the importance of terrain in ground combat more apparent, and perhaps more exaggerated, than in Italy, and even more so in and around Montecassino. This book documents Frank's and Ed's accurate and insightful narrative and many photographs drawn from tour video. We were continuously impressed with the full visibility of the Liri Valley floor from the surrounding heights above Rte. 6, the chosen Allied route to Rome. These heights enabled domination of the battles fought for the Gustav Line by physically underpowered and tactically overmatched Allied armies. Creating this book series brought back many emotive sights, sounds, stories and emotions (unfortunately, not the food) experienced on the tour. We hope it provides some sense of that experience for the reader.
Download or read book A Walking Tour of Italy s WWII Battlefields written by Frank de Planta and published by Nova Science Publishers. This book was released on 2021 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bernard Nolan was a member of the "Gentlemen from Hell," the 487th Bomb Group, commanded for a time by Beirne Lay, who went on to write Twelve O'clock High, which became the famous film starring Gregory Peck. Barney was born on November 22, 1922 in Long Island City, New York and grew up before and after the Great Depression. Though not having high school or college degrees, he was long inspired to fly from the enthusiasm of early adventurers in the air like Charles Lindberg and Amelia Earhart, and was part of a generation of young airmen who longed to fly. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor drew on the nation's manpower, and Barney studied to be selected as a recruit in the U.S. Army Air Corps. He flew 33 missions striking at Nazi targets in Western Europe.His memoir tells of his early life at a time when you could go see Doris Day or Frank Sinatra perform live in New York. He describes the impacy of the Depression on his family, his having to find work and leave school, and make other sacrifices to one day fly for his country. We see the frustration --- which he surmounted - of thinking himself a fighter pilot, but ending up a copilot in a four-engine bomber. Hitler's Luftwaffe would use radar, fighters, and flak to knock them from the skies, but they prevailed.We hear about his death-defying missions, see the bombs falling on European landscapes as they were then and as they are today, we watch with him as other planes go down in flames, we live though him being shot down himself, and experience it all through the eyes of a young man in the air. He was not a General or part of the ground echelon, and he is not recalling stories from a father or uncle in his memoir; he was in the aircraft massed by many hundreds to strike well-defended Nazi targets in the daylight. There are very few people left who did so, and Barney is one of them.Perhaps the most important real-life lesson learned from this book is the influence of strong will and perseverance to achieve a dream, as Barney surely did. As a child in the Depression excited by the flying heroes of the age, it seemed there would be too many obstacles blocking that dream. We see how his desire to fly made him a pilot by taking advantage of the war and following his heroes into the air. Once a pilot, we see how he worked to keep flying in the Air Services even after he completed his 33 missions in the European Air War crucible, and kept himself in the air when peace came. In fact, this child of the Depression with a dream of flying would one day be, as he called himself, "Mr. Airplanes," of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).Finally, we see how he met and married the love of his life, and is still married after 75 years. A lot is written today about relationships, but Barney and Sunny Nolan were engaged after two weeks of courtship and are closer today than ever after all those years. That story in itself demonstrates Sunny's as well as Barney's character and commitment, their knowledge of themselves and what is important in their lives.
Download or read book A Walking Tour of Italy s WWII Battlefields written by Frank De Planta and published by Nova Science Publishers. This book was released on 2021 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Italian Campaign is truly an amazing, and often heartbreaking, story, and it certainly generates sympathy as well as respect for the soldiers who fought there, particularly the sacrificed Texas and Polish soldiers as well as the British "D-Day Dodgers." In addition to the British soldiers, you gain a new and far greater appreciation of the men in the 36th Texas and Polish Divisions because of their commitment, heroism and sacrifice in these battles, much less the many others from multiple nations who fought in Italy in 1943 and 1944. This book is the third title in the NOVA Science Publishers Homeland Security Series presenting a walking tour of World War II battle sites in mainland Italy: 1. A Walking Tour of Italy's WWII Battlefields: From the Salerno Landings to San Pietro Infine 2. A Walking Tour of Italy's WWII Battlefields: Breaking the Gustav and Hitler Lines 3. A Walking Tour of Italy's WWII Battlefields: From the Anzio Landings to Rome. These books were derived from the sights and sounds experienced during Marty Gane's South Mountain Expeditions tour called WWII Invasion of Italy: From Sicily to Rome, conducted in September 2014. The late Edwin Cole Bearss was the lead South Mountain historian for the tour, and helped select our expert history guide British Lt Col (Retd) Frank de Planta de Wildenberg, a deservedly renown Italian battlefield tour leader. Franks designed the tour route, providing the specific strategic and tactical on-the-ground details experienced at each tour stand site. Ed Bearss provided insightful commentary and likened situations to his own combat experience as a Marine in the WWII Pacific theater. After experiencing the disaster of the underpowered US 36th Division at the Rapido crossing as described in Book 1 and the four battles for the high ground around Montecassino to break the Gustav Line from Book 2, the walking tour from Anzio to Rome demonstrates more horrific losses of men and material for little gain. The cost of attacking the "tough old gut," includes the American Rangers at Cisterna and the British in the World War I trench warfare of the Lobster Claws above Anzio. Added to these losses are the men and woman behind the lines, the doctors and nurses, lost to the terror shelling by long-range cannon like Anzio Annie, reminiscent of the Paris Gun during WWI. The late Ed Bearss history tours always emphasize the importance of the terrain in victory or defeat for the ground soldier, his or her units, and the armies as a whole. From the Alban Hills, German artillery observers could see everything that moved on the Anzio Plan, call in indirect fire from many guns with impunity, or lob shells into the port area miles behind the fighting. Just as at Salerno, the Allies had to capture this high ground to protect the beachhead, and once through the Velletri Gap, move north toward Rome"--
Download or read book WALKING TOUR OF ITALY S WWII BATTLEFIELDS written by FRANK DE PLANTA DE. WILDENBE and published by . This book was released on 2024 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A Walking Tour of Italy s WWII Battlefields from Rome to Bologna written by Frank de Planta de Wildenberg and published by . This book was released on 2024 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book is a sequel to the 2014 South Mountain Expeditions tour that led to the first three books in the "Walking Tour" series. This fourth book covers World War II (WWII) in Rome and the battlefields from north of Rome to Bologna. This book was added to cover the advance of Allied forces after the liberation of Rome, the taking of Florence, and the Eighth Army's penetration of the Gothic line through the Argenta Gap. The impact of World War II on Rome: the Eighth Army's offensive strategy; Albert Kesselring's defensive-line selection and delay strategy; the impact of 1940's military technology; the endemic role of the terrain and weather; and the emotional impact of the thousands of graves that represent only a small fraction of the human price for Italian freedom from tyranny, all come to life in this story. This book presents a narrative description of a history tour whose transcribed quotes and images were derived from unrestricted video footage of the people and their words recorded on the tour, as well as Frank de Planta's detailed notes"--
Download or read book Salerno to Cassino written by Martin Blumenson and published by . This book was released on 1969 with total page 526 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Operations from the invasion of the Italian mainland near Salerno through the winter fighting up to the battles for Monte Cassino (including the Rapido River crossing) and the Anzio beachhead.
Download or read book A Death in San Pietro written by Tim Brady and published by Hachette+ORM. This book was released on 2013-11-05 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By the time Mark Clark's Fifth Army reached the small village of San Pietro north of Naples in the first week of December 1943, a tough but rapid sweep through Sicily came to a muddy halt. On the slopes of a distant mountain, the death of a single platoon captain, Henry Waskow, epitomized the struggle. A Death in San Pietro chronicles the quietly heroic and beloved Captain Waskow and his company as they make their way into battle. Waskow's 36th ("Texas") Division would ultimately succeed in driving the Germans off the mountains; but not before eighty percent of Waskow's company is lost in action. For Americans back home, two of the war's most lasting artistic expression brought horrified focus to the battlefield, already dubbed "Purple Heart Valley" by the men of the 36th. Pulitzer Prize-winner Ernie Pyle's dispatch about Waskow's death and filmmaker John Huston's award-winning documentary of the battle rivets--and shocks--the nation, bringing, as if for the first time, the awful carnage of world war into living rooms across America.
Download or read book Operation Avalanche written by Des Hickey and published by McGraw-Hill Companies. This book was released on 1984 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Some forty years later, the Allied landings on the Italian coast at Salerno before dawn on September 9, 1943, seem only a part of one of the half-forgotten campaigns of World War II. Yet it was in its day the largest amphibious invasion becoming the Allies' costliest blunder. Codenamed "Avalanche," the operation under U.S. General Mark Clark involved 500 ships and 165,000 American and British servicemen in the hazardous attempt to establish on the mainland of Occupied Europe a beachhead. It was the Allies' misfortune that the beach was ringed by jagged mountains where large concentrations of Hitler's Wehrmacht - the best-organized, best-equipped, most battle-proven army in the world - were securely dug into superb defensive positions. Mark Clark predicted that "Avalanche" would achieve its major objective, the capture of Naples, within three days. It was a bad miscalculation. "Avalanche" lasted for twenty-one desperate days and for a time threatened to become a greater débâcle than Gallipoli or Dunkirk. What went wrong? This book recreates those twenty-one critical days to provide some brutal answers. -- from inside jacket flap.
Download or read book The Winter Campaign in Italy 1943 written by Pier Paolo Battistelli and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2023-11-23 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A gripping tale of three crucial battles fought at the end of 1943 as Allied forces approached the Gustav Line in Italy. After repulsing the German counter-attack at Salerno in September 1943, the US Fifth Army and British Eighth Army advanced up the Italian Peninsula. By October, the Allied armies had reached the Volturno Line, forcing a critical decision in German strategy: a prolonged defence would be conducted in southern Italy, contesting the Allied advance using the complex terrain features. By mid-November, the two Allied armies were approaching the German defensive lines along the Garigliano and the Sangro rivers. Here, US 5th Army would attack through the Mignano gap towards San Pietro Infine, while British Eighth Army would seize Ortona on the Adriatic coast and Orsogna. A brutal struggle ensued, with the German defenders attempting to hold their positions. The fighting at Ortona in particular (labelled a 'mini Stalingrad') would be particularly grueling for the Canadian forces involved. This fascinating work focuses on several little-known battles fought in Italy following the German withdrawal from the Salerno bridgehead and from Taranto. Maps and diagrams present an easy to follow overview of the multiple operations of this complex campaign. The forces of the opposing sides (including American, German, Canadian, New Zealand and British troops), and the three decisive battles fought in late 1943, are brought vividly to life in period photos and superb battlescene artworks.
Download or read book Salerno 1943 written by Angus Konstam and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2013-06-20 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A meticulous illustrated examination of Operation Avalanche, the highly contested British and US invasion of the Italian mainland. In mid-September 1943, as the opening move of the Allied campaign to liberate the mainland of Italy, an Anglo-American invasion force landed on the beaches of the Gulf of Salerno, only a few dozen miles to the south of Naples. Italy had just surrendered, and the soldiers in the landing craft prayed that the invasion would be unopposed. It was not to be. The Germans had seized control of the Italian-built beach defences, and were ready and waiting. The ferocious ten-day battle at Salerno was eventually decided by a combination of Allied reinforcements, and secondary landings in support of the beleaguered Salerno bridgehead. Using documentary records, memoirs and eyewitness accounts from all sides, Angus Konstam recreates the battle day by day, hour by hour. His methodically researched account offers a fresh perspective on a decisive battle that has largely been neglected by British and American historians.
Download or read book American Operations in Italy during WW2 Salerno written by Center of Military History of the U.S. Army and published by DigiCat. This book was released on 2023-11-26 with total page 93 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Operation Avalanche was the codename for the Allied landings near the port of Salerno, executed on 9 September 1943, as a part of the Allied invasion of Italy during World War II. The Italians withdrew from the war the day before the invasion, but the Allies landed in an area defended by German troops. The landings were carried out by the U.S. Fifth Army, under Lieutenant General Mark W. Clark. Its primary objectives were to seize the port of Naples to ensure resupply, and to cut across to the east coast, trapping the Axis troops further south. This book provides a concise summary of this military operation. The skilful combination of combat interviews with primary sources, many of which are now lost, gives these unassuming narratives a special importance to military historians. This careful analysis of Operation Avalanche provides numerous lessons for the modern generations.
Download or read book World War Ii Operations and Battles of the Italian Campaign written by Source Wikipedia and published by University-Press.org. This book was released on 2013-09 with total page 90 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 88. Chapters: Battle of Monte Cassino, Allied invasion of Sicily, Operation Shingle, Operation Husky order of battle, Allied invasion of Italy, Moro River Campaign, Gothic Line, Bernhardt Line, Spring 1945 offensive in Italy, Four days of Naples, Eric Lloyd Williams, Battle of San Marino, Air Raid on Bari, Allied Invasion of Italy Order of Battle, Battle of San Pietro Infine, Battle of Rimini, Battle of Cisterna, Battle of Ortona, Battle of Bologna, Operation Slapstick, Bombing of the Vatican, Trasimene Line, Volturno Line, Battle of Ancona, Operation Diadem, Barbara Line, Battle of Monte Castello, Operation Bowler, Monte la Difensa, Salerno Mutiny, Operation Corkscrew, Battle of Gemmano, Anzio War Cemetery, Operation Baytown, Operation Chettyford, Operation Boardman, Bombing of Treviso in World War II. Excerpt: The Battle of Monte Cassino (also known as the Battle for Rome and the Battle for Cassino) was a costly series of four battles during World War II, fought by the Allies against Germans and Italians with the intention of breaking through the Winter Line and seizing Rome. In the beginning of 1944, the western half of the Winter Line was being anchored by Germans holding the Rapido, Liri and Garigliano valleys and certain surrounding peaks and ridges, together known as the Gustav Line. The Germans had not occupied the historic hilltop abbey of Monte Cassino, founded in AD 524 by Benedict of Nursia and which dominated the town of Cassino and the entrances to the Liri and Rapido valleys, although they manned defensive positions set into the steep slopes below the abbey walls. On 15 February, the monastery, high on a peak overlooking the town of Cassino, was destroyed by 1,400 tons of bombs dropped by American bombers. The bombing was based on the fear that the abbey was being used as a lookout post for the German defenders...
Download or read book The Invasion of Sicily 1943 written by Jon Diamond and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2017-08-30 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With victory in North Africa complete, the Allies had a choice. The Americans wanted an early cross channel attack from Britain on North West Europe. Churchill favored invading the soft underbelly of Italy to weaken the Axis forces and gain Italian surrender. With Eisenhowers army and battle-hardened Eighth Army in North Africa, Churchill prevailed.The ambitious Operation HUSKY required meticulous planning. Montgomery's Eighth Army and Patton's Seventh landed successfully although the air landing proved costly. While the outcome was not in doubt the mountainous terrain acted in the defenders favor. The German presence was higher than expected and the vast bulk of the enemy were Italian. In little over a month, the first Americans reached Messina.The strategic plan was successful: the Italian capitulated, Hitler had to reinforce his Southern flank relieving pressure on the Soviets and valuable lessons were learned by Allied for D-Day.
Download or read book The Winter Campaign in Italy 1943 written by Pier Paolo Battistelli and published by Osprey Publishing. This book was released on 2023-11-21 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A gripping tale of three crucial battles fought at the end of 1943 as Allied forces approached the Gustav Line in Italy. After repulsing the German counter-attack at Salerno in September 1943, the US Fifth Army and British Eighth Army advanced up the Italian Peninsula. By October, the Allied armies had reached the Volturno Line, forcing a critical decision in German strategy: a prolonged defence would be conducted in southern Italy, contesting the Allied advance using the complex terrain features. By mid-November, the two Allied armies were approaching the German defensive lines along the Garigliano and the Sangro rivers. Here, US 5th Army would attack through the Mignano gap towards San Pietro Infine, while British Eighth Army would seize Ortona on the Adriatic coast and Orsogna. A brutal struggle ensued, with the German defenders attempting to hold their positions. The fighting at Ortona in particular (labelled a 'mini Stalingrad') would be particularly grueling for the Canadian forces involved. This fascinating work focuses on several little-known battles fought in Italy following the German withdrawal from the Salerno bridgehead and from Taranto. Maps and diagrams present an easy to follow overview of the multiple operations of this complex campaign. The forces of the opposing sides (including American, German, Canadian, New Zealand and British troops), and the three decisive battles fought in late 1943, are brought vividly to life in period photos and superb battlescene artworks.
Download or read book Anzio written by Lloyd Clark and published by Grove Press. This book was released on 2007-10-10 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Masterly . . . a heartbreaking, beautifully told story of wasted sacrifice." --Vince Rinehart, The Washington Post The Allied attack of Normandy beach and its resultant bloodbath have been immortalized in film and literature, but the U.S. campaign on the beaches of Western Italy reigns as perhaps the deadliest battle of World War II's western theater. In January 1944, about six months before D-Day, an Allied force of thirty-six thousand soldiers launched one of the first attacks on continental Europe at Anzio, a small coastal city thirty miles south of Rome. The assault was conceived as the first step toward an eventual siege of the Italian capital. But the advance stalled and Anzio beach became a death trap. After five months of brutal fighting and monumental casualties on both sides, the Allies finally cracked the German line and marched into Rome on June 5, the day before D-Day. Richly detailed and fueled by extensive archival research of newspapers, letters, and diaries--as well as scores of original interviews with surviving soldiers on both sides of the trenches--Anzio is a harrowing and incisive true story by one of today's finest military historians.