The Italian Campaign, 1943-45

The Italian Campaign, 1943-45 PDF Author: Gilbert Alan Shepperd
Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 488

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The Italian Campaign, 1943-45

The Italian Campaign, 1943-45 PDF Author: Gilbert Alan Shepperd
Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 488

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Book Description


Allied Armies in Sicily and Italy 1943–1945

Allied Armies in Sicily and Italy 1943–1945 PDF Author: Simon Forty
Publisher: Pen and Sword Military
ISBN: 1526766213
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 261

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Book Description
A pictorial history of Allied forces making their way through Italy in the final years of World War II, featuring rare photos from wartime archives. The Italian campaign was one of the most debated of World War II, splitting the American and British allies, and causing great disharmony. After the fall of Rome and the surrender of Italy, the invasion of Normandy led to the Italian campaign becoming a sideshow as the “D-Day Dodgers” fought their way through Italy to the Alps against a grinding defense and extreme weather. In a sequence of 200 wartime photographs Simon Forty sums up the major events of the conflict—from the landings on Sicily to the crossing of the Po. Commanded first by Sir Harold Alexander and then Mark Clark, the Allied armies (U.S. Fifth and British Eighth) drew men not only from Britain, the United States, France, and Poland, but also from all over the Commonwealth—from Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and South Africa—as well as such other countries as Brazil, Czechoslovakia, Greece, and Palestine. The devastation caused by the war in the cities, towns, and countryside is part of the story, but perhaps the most powerful impression is made by the faces of the soldiers themselves as they look out from the Italian front of so long ago. “Another addition to the very popular Images of War series, with a mass of outstanding and rare images. The author covers campaigns in Sicily and Italy as the Allies slogged their way north, using amphibious and airborne assault to bypass the German lines—Very Highly Recommended.” —Firetrench

Tug of War

Tug of War PDF Author: Dominick Graham
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1473819938
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 635

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Book Description
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.

Forgotten Battles

Forgotten Battles PDF Author: Charles T. O'Reilly
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 9780739101957
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 390

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Book Description
Italy's War of Liberation takes issue with the apparently prevalent attitude among Allied commanders during World War II that the Italian military was ineffective. O'Reilly recounts the little-known story of the significant contribution made by the Italian military during the Italian Campaign, including the contribution of relatively unacknowledged Italian Partisan formations that fought in Italy, France, Yugoslavia, and Greece. Despite the fact that Italians fought on the front lines with the British and American soldiers, and despite the service of the Italian Navy and Air Force, the Allies refused repeated Italian pleas for more involvement in combat. This book not only attempts to correct the record of military history by illustrating the ways in which the Italians were underutilized by the Allies, but it also serves to paint a fair portrait of the Italian military's substantial efforts to defeat Hitler and eradicate Fascism.

Eighth Army in Italy, 1943-45

Eighth Army in Italy, 1943-45 PDF Author: Richard Doherty
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1473813875
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 477

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Book Description
Eighth Army, Britain's most famous field army of the twentieth century, landed in Italy in September 1943 and fought continously until the defeat of the Germans in early-May 1945. This book studies the experience of Eighth Army in the Italian campaign, examining how a force accustomed to the open spaces of North Africa adjusted to the difficult terrain of Italy where fighting became much more a matter for the infantry than for the armour. It also compares the qualities of the commanders of Eighth Army in Italy: Montgomery; Leese and, finally, McCreery. The book uses official records at various levels, personal accounts - some never before published - and published material to present a picture of an army that, although defined as British, was one of the war's most cosmopolitan formations. Its soldiers came from the UK, Canada, India, Ireland, Nepal, New Zealand, Poland and South Africa as well as from Palestine - the Jewish Brigade - and from Italy itself.

Backwater War

Backwater War PDF Author: Edwin P. Hoyt
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313076758
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
A year before the much-heralded second front was opened at Normandy in 1944, the Allies waged a campaign in Sicily and Italy—an assault that was marked by argument and dissent from beginning to end, highlighting the fundamental differences in strategic thinking between the Americans and the British. Winston Churchill favored scrapping what would become the Normandy invasion entirely, focusing instead on the soft underbelly of Nazi Europe, but American planners summarily rejected any plan that relied solely on a southern option. This is the story of this backwater campaign, a series of battles skillfully staged by the Germans and so botched by the Allies that their victory was achieved only as a result of German exhaustion. During the hard-fought campaign, the Americans persisted in their suspicion that the British were trying to undermine the effort. For example, the imbroglio over the Benedictine monastery of Monte Cassino and the ineptness of the British assault, led by a commander already discredited by his role in the fall of Crete, would spur the Americans to overreact and destroy the monastery by bombing. This created a major propaganda victory for the Germans. Such incidents convinced both Washington and London that they were working at cross-purposes. Hoyt contends that, as the British argued at the time, Allied efforts would have been better-spent concentrating on the Balkans. The Normandy campaign was expensive, unnecessary, and ultimately lengthened the war.

Sacrifice on the Steppe

Sacrifice on the Steppe PDF Author: Hope Hamilton
Publisher: Casemate
ISBN: 1612000029
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
When GermanyÕs Sixth Army advanced to Stalingrad in 1942, its long-extended flanks were mainly held by its allied armiesÑthe Romanians, Hungarians, and Italians. But as history tells us, these flanks quickly caved in before the massive Soviet counter-offensive which commenced that November, dooming the Germans to their first catastrophe of the war. However, the historical record also makes clear that one allied unit held out to the very end, fighting to stem the tideÑthe Italian Alpine Corps. As a result of MussoliniÕs disastrous alliance with Nazi Germany, by the fall of 1942, 227,000 soldiers of the Italian Eighth Army were deployed on a 270km front along the Don River to protect the left flank of German troops intent on capturing Stalingrad. Sixty thousand of these were alpini, elite Italian mountain troops. When the Don front collapsed under Soviet hammerblows, it was the Alpine Corps that continued to hold out until it was completely isolated, and which then tried to fight its way out through both Russian encirclement and ÒGeneral Winter,Ó to rejoin the rest of the Axis front. Only one of the three alpine divisions was able to emerge from the Russian encirclement with survivors. In the all-sides battle across the snowy steppe, thousands were killed and wounded, and even more were captured. By the summer of 1946, 10,000 survivors returned to Italy from Russian POW camps. This tragic story is complex and unsettling, but most of all it is a human story. Mussolini sent thousands of poorly equipped soldiers to a country far from their homeland, on a mission to wage war with an unclear mandate against a people who were not their enemies. Raw courage and endurance blend with human suffering, desperation and altruism in the epic saga of this withdrawal from the Don lines, including the demise of thousands and survival of the few. Hope Hamilton, fluent in Italian and having spent many years in Italy, has drawn on many interviews with survivors, as well as massive research, in order to provide this first full English-language account of one of World War IIÕs legendary stands against great odds.

The War Against Germany and Italy

The War Against Germany and Italy PDF Author: Kenneth E. Hunter
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : World War, 1939-1945
Languages : en
Pages : 440

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Cassino to the Alps

Cassino to the Alps PDF Author: Ernest F. Fisher
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 584

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Eighth Army in Italy

Eighth Army in Italy PDF Author: Richard Doherty
Publisher: Pen & Sword
ISBN: 9781844156375
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 259

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Book Description
Eighth Army was Britain's most famous field army of the twentieth century. This book studies the experience of Eighth Army in the Italian campaign, examining how a force accustomed to the open spaces of North Africa adjusted to the difficult terrain of Italy where fighting became much more a matter for the infantry than for the armor. The book uses official records at various levels, personal accounts – some never before published – and published material to present a picture of an army that, although defined as British, was one of the war's most cosmopolitan formations.