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Cassino The Hollow Victory
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Book Synopsis Cassino, the Hollow Victory by : John Ellis
Download or read book Cassino, the Hollow Victory written by John Ellis and published by A. Deutsch. This book was released on 1984 with total page 642 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Monte Cassino written by Matthew Parker and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2004-06-01 with total page 445 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Monte Cassino is the true story of one of the bitterest and bloodiest of the Allied struggles against the Nazi army. Long neglected by historians, the horrific conflict saw over 350,000 casualties, while the worst winter in Italian memory and official incompetence and backbiting only worsened the carnage and turmoil. Combining groundbreaking research in military archives with interviews with four hundred survivors from both sides, as well as soldier diaries and letters, Monte Cassino is both profoundly evocative and historically definitive. Clearly and precisely, Matthew Parker brilliantly reconstructs Europe’s largest land battle–which saw the destruction of the ancient monastery of Monte Cassino–and dramatically conveys the heroism and misery of the human face of war.
Book Synopsis The Day of Battle by : Rick Atkinson
Download or read book The Day of Battle written by Rick Atkinson and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2008-09-16 with total page 852 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the second volume of his epic trilogy about the liberation of Europe in World War II, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Atkinson tells the harrowing story of the campaigns in Sicily and Italy.
Download or read book A Perfect Hell written by John Nadler and published by Anchor Canada. This book was released on 2010-03-05 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It’s 1942 and Hitler’s armies stand astride Europe like a colossus. Germany is winning on every front. This is the story of how one of the world’s first commando units, put together for the invasion of Norway, helped turn the tide in Italy. 1942. When the British generals recommend an audacious plan to parachute a small elite commando unit into Norway in a bid to put Nazi Germany on the defensive, Winston Churchill is intrigued. But Britain, fighting for its life, can’t spare the manpower to participate. So William Lyon MacKenzie King is contacted and asked to commit Canadian troops to the bold plan. King, determined to join Roosevelt and Churchill as an equal leader in the Allied war effort, agrees. One of the world’s first commando units, the First Special Service Force, or FSSF, is assembled from hand-picked soldiers from Canadian and American regiments. Any troops sent into Norway will have to be rugged, self-sufficient, brave, and weather-hardened. Canada has such men in ample supply. The all-volunteer FSSF comprises outdoorsmen — trappers, rangers, prospectors, miners, loggers. Assembled at an isolated base in Helena, Montana, and given only five months to train before the invasion, they are schooled in parachuting, mountain climbing, cross-country skiing, and cold-weather survival. They are taught how to handle explosives, how to operate nearly every field weapon in the American and German arsenals, and how to kill with their bare hands. After the Norway plan is scrapped, the FSSF is dispatched to Italy and given its first test — to seize a key German mountain-top position which had repelled the brunt of the Allied armies for over a month. In a reprise of the audacity and careful planning that won Vimy Ridge for the Canadians in WWI, the FSSF takes the twin peaks Monte la Difensa and Monte la Remetanea by storming the supposedly unscalable rock face at the rear of the German position, and opens the way through the mountains. Later, the FSSF will hold one-quarter of the Anzio beachhead against a vastly superior German force for ninety-nine days; a force of only 1,200 commandos does the work of a full division of over 17,000 troops. Though badly outnumbered, the FSSF takes the fight to the Germans, sending nighttime patrols behind enemy lines and taking prisoners. It is here that they come to be known among the dispirited Germans as Schwartzer Teufel (“Black Devils”) for their black camouflage face-paint and their terrifying tactic of appearing out of the darkness. John Nadler vividly captures the savagery of the Italian campaign, fought as it was at close quarters and with desperate resolve, and the deeply human experiences of the individual men called upon to fight it. Based on extensive archival research and interviews with veterans, A Perfect Hell is an important contribution to Canadian military history and an indispensable account of the lives and battlefield exploits of the men who turned the tide of the Second World War.
Book Synopsis With Utmost Spirit by : Barbara Brooks Tomblin
Download or read book With Utmost Spirit written by Barbara Brooks Tomblin and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2004-10-08 with total page 608 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nineteen months before the D-Day invasion of Normandy, Allied assault forces landed in North Africa in Operation TORCH, the first major amphibious operation of the war in Europe. Under the direction of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, AUS, Adm. Andrew B. Cunningham, RN, Admiral H. Kent Hewitt, USN, and others, the Allies kept pressure on the Axis by attacking what Winston Churchill dubbed "the soft underbelly of Europe." The Allies seized the island of Sicily, landed at Salerno and Anzio, and established a presence along the coast of southern France. With Utmost Spirit takes a fresh look at this crucial naval theater of the Second World War. Barbara Brooks Tomblin chronicles the US Navy's and the Royal Navy's struggles to wrest control of the Mediterranean Sea from Axis submarines and aircraft, to lift the siege of Malta, and to open a through convoy route to Suez while providing ships, carrier air support, and landing craft for five successful amphibious operations. Examining official action reports, diaries, interviews, and oral histories, Tomblin describes each of these operations in terms of ship-to-shore movements, air and naval gunfire support, logistics, countermine measures, antisubmarine warfare, and the establishment of ports and training bases in the Mediterranean. Firsthand accounts from the young officers and men who manned the ships provide essential details about Mediterranean operations and draw a vivid picture of the war at sea and off the beaches.
Book Synopsis Churchill & His Generals by : Raymond Callahan
Download or read book Churchill & His Generals written by Raymond Callahan and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On the eve of World War II, the British army was more an international police force than a combat ready fighting force. This book examines its transformation in a look at Great Britain's top commanders in the field.
Download or read book Tug of War written by Dominick Graham and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2004-05-30 with total page 635 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When the Allies invaded mainland Italy in 1943 they intended only a clearing-up operation to knock Italy out of the war, but Hitler ordered the German armies to defend every foot of the country. The 'Tug of War' was the mysterious force which caused a war to race out of control, and attract vast numbers of men, tanks, guns and aircraft. The book analyses the main battles of Salerno, Cassino, Anzio and the march on Rome.
Book Synopsis Salerno to the Gustav Line, 1943–1944 by : Jon Diamond
Download or read book Salerno to the Gustav Line, 1943–1944 written by Jon Diamond and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2018-02-28 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In September 1943, shortly after the conquest of Sicily, the Allied armies made amphibious assaults on the Italian Mainland at Calabria, Taranto and along the Gulf of Salerno beaches. The Italian Government quickly capitulated but the Germans fought on. Although the British XIII Corps and 1st Airbornes attacks were largely uncontested in Calabria and Taranto, the Allied Fifth Armys beachheads at Salerno underwent savage Nazi counterattacks.After Salerno, the Allied Fifth and Eighth Armies continued their advance north initially to the ports of Naples and Bari before struggling through Italian massifs, held up by a determined enemy and unfavorable ground and weather. In January 1944, the Fifth Armys X, II and French Expeditionary Corps attacked across the Garigliano and Rapido Rivers with the aim of breaking through the Gustav Line fortifications. The Nazi defense at the town of Cassino just succeeded in halting the two-week Allied attack during First Battle of Cassino and the Gustav Line was to be the scene of fierce fighting for months.
Book Synopsis The Advancement of Liberty by : Matthew C. Price
Download or read book The Advancement of Liberty written by Matthew C. Price and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2007-12-30 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a counterpoint to the prevailing view that the United States is an imperialist nation that has violently pursued power in the world to advance its own narrow interests. The basic theme is that at the dawn of the 20th century, there were six democracies in the world, but by century's end, democracy was ascendant. This epic historical transformation has been thanks in great measure to the vision and sacrifices made by Americans. Matthew C. Price examines the great conflicts of the 20th century, showing how American democratic principles have utterly reshaped global values and politics. The defeat of fascism and imperialism in World War II led to the Marshall Plan, the single most influential rebuilding program in human history. The fostering of democracy in Japan, the establishment of the UN, and the fall of the Soviet Union reshaped the world in unforeseen ways. America has dedicated itself to democracy in the Middle East, to democratization in China, and to the larger quest for the spread of liberal democratic principles worldwide, even when the struggle is difficult, dangerous, and ongoing. Early in the century, Woodrow Wilson said that America should make the world safe for democracy. In taking up that challenge, the United States changed human history.
Book Synopsis A Question of Honor by : Lynne Olson
Download or read book A Question of Honor written by Lynne Olson and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2007-12-18 with total page 514 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Question of Honor is the gripping, little-known story of the refugee Polish pilots who joined the RAF and played an essential role in saving Britain from the Nazis, only to be betrayed by the Allies after the war. After Poland fell to the Nazis, thousands of Polish pilots, soldiers, and sailors escaped to England. Devoted to liberating their homeland, some would form the RAF’s 303 squadron, known as the Kosciuszko Squadron, after the elite unit in which many had flown back home. Their thrilling exploits and fearless flying made them celebrities in Britain, where they were “adopted” by socialites and seduced by countless women, even as they yearned for news from home. During the Battle of Britain, they downed more German aircraft than any other squadron, but in a stunning twist at the war’s end, the Allies rewarded their valor by abandoning Poland to Joseph Stalin. This moving, fascinating book uncovers a crucial forgotten chapter in World War II–and Polish–history.
Book Synopsis General Mark Clark by : Jon B. Mikolashek
Download or read book General Mark Clark written by Jon B. Mikolashek and published by Casemate. This book was released on 2013-03-22 with total page 371 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Mikolashek . . . has given we history readers and buffs, as well as military historians, a new introduction to a key American General of World War 2.” —Jim Kane, 1 Man and His Books Although not nearly as well-known as other US Army senior commanders, Gen. Mark Clark is one of the four men—along with Eisenhower, Patton, and Bradley—who historian Martin Blumenson called “the essential quartet of American leaders who achieved victory in Europe.” Eisenhower nicknamed him the American Eagle. A skilled staff officer, Clark rose quickly through the ranks, and by the time America entered the war, he was deputy commander of Allied forces in north Africa. Several weeks before Operation Torch, Clark landed by submarine in a daring mission to negotiate the cooperation of the Vichy French. He was subsequently named commander of United States Fifth Army and tasked with the invasion of Italy. Fifth Army and Mark Clark are virtually synonymous. From the September 1943 landing at Salerno, Clark and his army fought their way north against skilled German resistance, augmented by mountainous terrain. The daring January 1944 end-run at Anzio, although not immediately successful, set the stage for Fifth Army’s liberation of Rome on June 4, 1944, after ten months of hard fighting. Mikolashek, a history professor at the United States Army Command and General Staff College, sheds much needed historical light on one of America’s most important fighting generals in this “warts and all” biography. He also demonstrates the importance of the Italian Campaign, paying tribute to the valorous soldiers of U.S. Fifth Army and their Allied comrades.
Book Synopsis Major Blunders of the Second World War by : Andrew Sangster
Download or read book Major Blunders of the Second World War written by Andrew Sangster and published by Pen and Sword Military. This book was released on 2024-12-30 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A mistake is an error of judgement, a blunder is a mistake caused by carelessness or ignorance, implying incompetence. Blunders are not always the result of incompetence; a chess player may give a critical piece away being distracted by noise, but in war it results in death with serious repercussions. This book explores such errors during the Second World War, some hardly known, a few contentious, many embarrassing. An American destroyer which fired a live torpedo at a battleship carrying Roosevelt, an American officer who unintentionally passed British information to Rommel, and a German plane crash-landing in neutral territory with plans for invasion are some little-known incidents. Overconfidence resulted in a Luftwaffe raid hitting exposed American gas shells killing Italian civilians, British and American military. Self-assurance led to an American general who lost men and tanks failing to rescue his son-in-law from a PoW camp. Inadequate planning brought disaster in the raid on Dieppe. Poor tactics deployed in the bombing of Monte Cassino was bad propaganda for the Allies but assisted the German defense. There are some issues which remain disputed, as with the British sinking the French Fleet, but whether it was a blunder remains questionable. There is the issue of the abdicated King Edward often accused of being a traitor, which may not have stood a court case but possibly a Judas caused by immature naivety. Finally, Dönitz was condemned at Nuremberg, but his U-boat warfare was no different from the Allies and at times almost chivalrous.
Book Synopsis The French Army 1939–45 (2) by : Ian Sumner
Download or read book The French Army 1939–45 (2) written by Ian Sumner and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2012-12-20 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By 16 June 1940, De Gaulle, with the decisive support of Churchill, had come to the conclusion that, whatever happened, France could not stand to one side in the struggle against Nazi Germany. And so, Free France was born. In this companion volume to MAA 315: The French Army 1939-45 (I) , Ian Sumner and François Vauvillier examine the history, uniforms and insignia of the Free French, Fighting French and the Army of Liberation.
Download or read book Strick written by Tim Strickland and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2021-07-07 with total page 513 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A biography on the unique military career and decorations of the British general Strick. He commanded no fewer than three armored regiments in World War II. Major-General Eugene Vincent Michael Strickland CMG, DSO, OBE, MM, CStJ, Star of Jordan – Strick – rose from penniless hardship to great military distinction. He was a tank man, a war hero who fought in France, North Africa and Italy during World War II, and whose name is revered even today among regiments that he commanded. His is the extraordinary tale of a man who gained a Regular Commission in the Indian Army from Sandhurst, but resigned soon afterwards. After a series of intriguing adventures, he then enlisted as a private soldier in the Royal Tank Corps. In May 1940, he played a major part in the counterattack at Arras, where two British infantry tank battalions held up the German advance for three days, enabling the success of the Dunkirk evacuation – and perhaps saving Britain from ultimate defeat in the process. Strick's outstanding success as a troop-sergeant in France saw him immediately (re-)commissioned, and his rise to high command was then swift. He commanded the leading Squadron of North Irish Horse in Tunisia 1943, and then commanded the North Irish Horse in its greatest battle, the breaking of the Hitler Line, in Italy in 1944. He served in seven regiments and had four regimental commands. This book focuses on his experience during World War II, drawing out the unique qualities required of leaders in close-combat battle, the particular demands of armored infantry cooperation, and how an individual can make a success of such a rapid rise through the ranks during wartime. This fine story of adventure and achievement is brought alive by Strick’s remarkable correspondence – he wrote home to his family every second or third day throughout the war, except when action was too fierce to write – supplemented by the recollections of his comrades and years of archival research. More than a portrait of a gifted and morally courageous man, this biography also offers an insight into the arts of command and tactical control, and the difficulties of a family life fragmented by war.
Book Synopsis Myths, Amnesia and Reality in Military Conflicts, 1935-1945 by : Pier Paolo Battistelli
Download or read book Myths, Amnesia and Reality in Military Conflicts, 1935-1945 written by Pier Paolo Battistelli and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2017-01-06 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stalin fabricated the myth that the Germans carried out the Katyń massacre and the West accepted it while always suspecting the reality. In the same way, each country tried to forget the more painful memories of its past and construct its own mythology. The Germans were never taken to task at Nuremberg for bombing because the Anglo-Americans virtually carried out a war of annihilation. The French Gaullist myth was that it was decadent politicians who caused the defeat, and that fighting France freed itself. In a similar vein, the Italian resistance was fostered as a myth and used postwar to cover the fascist period of their history. British and American popular history tends to portray their countries as the main victors often ignoring the massive Russian contribution, and generally concentrates on the barbarity of the Eastern war. Much is forgotten and much enhanced; both incidents and leaders. The Italian military historian of this book writes in depth about the Italian war so often ignored in western history, and tackles the myth of Italian cowardice, while the British author takes a cold, calculated look at Anglo-American leaders such as Montgomery, Mountbatten, Clark, Patton, and questions the myth of the special relationship between Great Britain and the USA, as well as the official and unofficial amnesia relating to self-inflicted gas wounds in Italy.
Book Synopsis Air Power at the Battlefront by : Dr Ian Gooderson
Download or read book Air Power at the Battlefront written by Dr Ian Gooderson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-05-13 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ian Gooderson presents a study of close air support in World War II, with the analysis focusing on the use of tactical air power by British and American forces during the campaigns in Italy and northwestern Europe between 1943 and 1945.
Book Synopsis They Fought at Anzio by : John S. D. Eisenhower
Download or read book They Fought at Anzio written by John S. D. Eisenhower and published by University of Missouri Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Italy, from the toe to the Alps, was the scene of the longest, bloodiest, most frustrating, and least understood series of battles fought by the Western Allies during World War II. Now, John S. D. Eisenhower offers a new look at the Italian campaign, emphasizing the Anzio offensive an operation pushed by Winston Churchill that fell largely to American troops to carry out. It was visualized as an amphibious landing of two Allied divisions behind German lines that would force the Wehrmacht to evacuate all of Italy. But the Germans held on and, with the arrival of reinforcements, nearly wiped out the Allied troops pinned down at Anzio Beach. By portraying that struggle from the perspectives of both commanders and foot soldiers, this prominent military historian focuses on the experiences of the individuals who fought in the Italian campaign to reveal what the battle at Anzio was all about. But more than the account of one operation, They Fought at Anzio covers the entire Italian campaign, from the landings at Salerno to the capture of Rome. Eisenhower brings a trained eye to reconstructing the difficult terrain of battle, approaching the Anzio campaign as a contest between opposing commands striving to anticipate and counter the opponent¿s moves not as a field exercise but as a deadly struggle for survival. He analyzes the command decisions that brought about the Anzio stalemate, interspersing his account with personal experiences of the men in the trenches, the nurses of the 56th Evacuation Hospital, and the young officers witnessing the horrors of war for the first time. As a study in command, Eisenhower¿s narrative gives new credit to generals Lucian Truscott and Fred Walker and assesses both the strengths and weaknesses of General Mark Clark, allowing us to grasp the situation as it appeared to those in command. He also offers compelling portraits of German commanders Field Marshal Albert Kesselring and General Frido von Senger und Etterlin. t has been said that Anzio was a soldier¿s battle, remembered more for blood shed than for military objectives achieved. By focusing on the experiences of the soldiers who fought there and the decisions of commanders in perilous circumstances, They Fought at Anzio offers a new appreciation of the contributions of both and a new understanding of this unheralded theater of the war.