Author: Robert Katz
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 9780743216425
Category : Rome (Italy)
Languages : en
Pages : 466
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Book Description
This landmark work draws on newly released documents and firsthand accounts to tell the dramatic story of Rome's dark days during the German occupation. 8-pages of photos. 2 maps.
Author: Lloyd Clark
Publisher: Grove Press
ISBN: 9780802143266
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 440
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Book Description
"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.
Author: Adrian Murdoch
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0752494554
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 189
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Book Description
In AD 9 half of Rome's Western army was ambushed in a German forest and annihilated. Three legions, three cavalry units and six auxiliary regiments - some 25,000 men - were wiped out. It dealt a body blow to the empire's imperial pretensions and was Rome's greatest defeat. No other battle stopped the Roman empire dead in its tracks. Although one of the most significant and dramatic battles in European history, this is also one which has been largely overlooked. Drawing on primary sources and a vast wealth of new archaeological evidence, Adrian Murdoch brings to life the battle itself, the historical background and the effects of the Roman defeat as well as exploring the personalities of those who took part.
Author: Matthew Parker
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 0385513399
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 445
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Book Description
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.
Author: Carlo D'Este
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0061942472
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
Fatal Decision is a powerful, dramatic, moving, and ultimately definitive narrative of one of the most desperate campaigns of World War II. In the winter of 1943-44, Anzio, a small Mediterranean resort and port some thirty-five miles south of Rome, played a crucial role in the fortunes of World War II as the target of an amphibious Allied landing. The Allies planned to bypass the strong German defenses along the Gustav Line and at Monte Cassino sixty miles to the southeast, which were holding up the American and British armies and preventing the liberation of Rome. By taking advantage of Allied command of the sea and air to effect complete surprise, infantry and armored forces landing at Anzio on January 22 were expected to secure the beachhead and then push inland to cut off the two main highways and railroads supplying the German forces to the south, either trapping and annihilating the German armies or forcing them to withdraw to the north, thus opening the way to Rome. But the reality of one of the most desperate campaigns of World War II was bad management, external meddling, poorly relayed orders, and uncertain leadership. The Anzio beachhead became a death trap, with Allied troops forced to fight for their lives for four dreadful months. The eventual victory in May 1944 was muted, bitter, and overshadowed by the Allied landings in Normandy on June 6. Mixing flawless research, drama, and combat with a brilliant narrative voice, Fatal Decision is one of the best histories ever written of a World War II military campaign.
Author: David Gibbins
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 1250038650
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 367
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Book Description
How far would you go for Rome? Carthage, 146 BC. This is the story of Fabius Petronius Secundus – Roman legionary and centurion – and of his general Scipio Aemilianus, and his rise to power: from his first battle against the Macedonians, that seals the fate of Alexander the Great's Empire, to total war in North Africa and the Siege of Carthage. Scipio's success brings him admiration and respect, but also attracts greed and jealousy – for the closest allies can become the bitterest of enemies. And then there is the dark horse, Julia, of the Caesar family – in love with Scipio but betrothed to his rival Paullus – who causes a vicious feud. Ultimately for Scipio it will come down to one question: how much is he prepared to sacrifice for his vision of Rome? Inspired by Total War: Rome II, from the bestselling Total War computer strategy game series, Destroy Carthage is the first in an epic series of novels. Not only the tale of one man's fate, it is also a journey to the core of Roman times, through a world of extraordinary military tactics and political intrigue that Rome's warriors and citizens used to cheat death.
Author: Peter S. Wells
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 039335203X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 276
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Book Description
The previously untold story of the watershed battle that changed the course of Western history. In AD 9, a Roman traitor led an army of barbarians who trapped and then slaughtered three entire Roman legions: 20,000 men, half the Roman army in Europe. If not for this battle, the Roman Empire would surely have expanded to the Elbe River, and probably eastward into present-day Russia. But after this defeat, the shocked Romans ended all efforts to expand beyond the Rhine, which became the fixed border between Rome and Germania for the next 400 years, and which remains the cultural border between Latin western Europe and Germanic central and eastern Europe today. This fascinating narrative introduces us to the key protagonists: the emperor Augustus, the most powerful of the Caesars; his general Varus, who was the wrong man in the wrong place; and the barbarian leader Arminius, later celebrated as the first German hero. In graphic detail, based on recent archaeological finds, the author leads the reader through the mud, blood, and decimation that was the Battle of Teutoburg Forest.
Author: Fred L. Walker
Publisher: Savas Publishing
ISBN: 1940669480
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 457
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Book Description
This remarkable and very rare memoir discusses the bloody combat history of the Texas National Guard 36th Infantry Division in World War II, from pre-embarkation training through the capture of Rome. The perspective, as seen through the eyes of its author, General Fred Walker, is refreshing for its refusal to rely upon hindsight and revisionist history. Walker led a division longer than any other American officer during World War II. The 36th earned a formidable reputation—and paid a high price for that distinction. Only five divisions in the entire U.S. Army suffered more casualties than the 36th during the course of the war. Some of the division’s fighting included the hard battles of Salerno and Monte Cassino. The 36th was assigned an assault river crossing at the Rapido to outflank the Cassino position and although several companies made it to the far bank, their tank support failed to cross the river. A German panzer grenadier counterattack pushed the infantry of the 36th back across the river with heavy losses. General Mark Clark, the 5th Army Commander, in what appeared to be an effort to scapegoat, relieved several key 36th division officers, although General Walker was retained as its commanding general. After the allies captured Rome, Walker was reassigned to command the Infantry School at Fort Benning. Includes a special guest Preface by Jeffrey W. Hunt, Director of the Texas Military Forces Museum, illustrations, photographs, maps. 504 pages.
Author: Ian James Ross
Publisher: Abrams
ISBN: 1468315358
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 303
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Book Description
In this “well-crafted, atmospheric” war novel set in ancient Rome, an officer battles under Constantine while in the midst of personal turmoil.(Ben Kane, author of Fields of Blood) The Roman Empire is on the brink of civil war. Only Maxentius, tyrant of Rome, stands between the emperor Constantine and supreme power in the west. Aurelius Castus is now a tribune in Constantine's army. But great honor brings new challenges: Castus is tormented by suspicions that his young wife has been unfaithful. And as Constantine becomes increasingly devoted to Christianity, he is forced to ask himself whether he is backing the wrong man. The coming war will decide the fate of empire. But Castus's own battle will carry him much further. “Hugely enjoyable. The author winds up tension into an explosion of fast-paced events.” —Conn Iggulden, author of Stormbird ”A thumping good read . . . thoroughly enjoyable.” —Ben Kane, author of Lionheart “This is up there with Harry Sidebottom and Ben Kane.” —M.C. Scott, author of Into the Fire
Author: Barry Strauss
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1982116692
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 368
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Book Description
A “splendid” (The Wall Street Journal) account of one of history’s most important and yet little-known wars, the campaign culminating in the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, whose outcome determined the future of the Roman Empire. Following Caesar’s assassination and Mark Antony’s defeat of the conspirators who killed Caesar, two powerful men remained in Rome—Antony and Caesar’s chosen heir, young Octavian, the future Augustus. When Antony fell in love with the most powerful woman in the world, Egypt’s ruler Cleopatra, and thwarted Octavian’s ambition to rule the empire, another civil war broke out. In 31 BC one of the largest naval battles in the ancient world took place—more than 600 ships, almost 200,000 men, and one woman—the Battle of Actium. Octavian prevailed over Antony and Cleopatra, who subsequently killed themselves. The Battle of Actium had great consequences for the empire. Had Antony and Cleopatra won, the empire’s capital might have moved from Rome to Alexandria, Cleopatra’s capital, and Latin might have become the empire’s second language after Greek, which was spoken throughout the eastern Mediterranean, including Egypt. In this “superbly recounted” (The National Review) history, Barry Strauss, ancient history authority, describes this consequential battle with the drama and expertise that it deserves. The War That Made the Roman Empire is essential history that features three of the greatest figures of the ancient world.
