A turning point of WWII

As 1944 began in Italy, the Allied army’s momentum had ground to a halt just south of the vaunted German Gustav Line of defense, far short of their initial objective of liberating Rome by Christmas. The fighting up the Italian peninsula had been brutal—rugged terrain, fierce resistance, terrible weather. While Allied leaders in London prepared for the cross-Channel invasion of France later that spring, the war in the West hinged in Italy. As bestselling historian James Holland relates in his seminal concluding volume on the Italy Campaign, the next five months saw two of World War II’s most famous battles—the four ferocious assaults on Monte Cassino and the fraught landing northwest at Anzio—culminating in the liberation of Rome.

Review Quote

“Academic histories are all very well, but at times it is a pleasure to sit back and wallow in an old-school military tale of flinty-eyed men doing battle.”—Thomas E. Ricks

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