Countdown to Cassino

Countdown to Cassino PDF Author: Alex Bowlby
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1473813360
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
In the autumn of 1943 the German Bernhardt Line ran through Mignano Gap, 12 miles south-west of Cassino. XIV Panzer Korps was to make a stand there, holding up the advancing US 5th Army - two thirds American, one third British - whilst Cassino was being fortified. If the 5th Army broke through Mignano Gap before Cassino's fortifications were really strong, Allied armour would smash its way through the town and go on to take Rome. Drawing on the memories of veterans who fought at Mignano Gap, and on extensive archive research, this book presents a wide-ranging account of this major battle, and describes how close the 5th Army came to making the crucial breakthrough. The author served with the Green Jackets in World War II and his 1969 publication, "The Recollections of Rifleman Bowlby", was republished 20 years later.

Countdown to Cassino

Countdown to Cassino PDF Author: Alex Bowlby
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1473813360
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 353

Get Book Here

Book Description
In the autumn of 1943 the German Bernhardt Line ran through Mignano Gap, 12 miles south-west of Cassino. XIV Panzer Korps was to make a stand there, holding up the advancing US 5th Army - two thirds American, one third British - whilst Cassino was being fortified. If the 5th Army broke through Mignano Gap before Cassino's fortifications were really strong, Allied armour would smash its way through the town and go on to take Rome. Drawing on the memories of veterans who fought at Mignano Gap, and on extensive archive research, this book presents a wide-ranging account of this major battle, and describes how close the 5th Army came to making the crucial breakthrough. The author served with the Green Jackets in World War II and his 1969 publication, "The Recollections of Rifleman Bowlby", was republished 20 years later.

Countdown to Cassino

Countdown to Cassino PDF Author: Alex Bowlby
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 0850524105
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
In the autumn of 1943 the German Bernhardt Line ran through Mignano Gap, 12 miles south-west of Cassino. XIV Panzer Korps was to make a stand there, holding up the advancing US 5th Army - two thirds American, one third British - whilst Cassino was being fortified. If the 5th Army broke through Mignano Gap before Cassino's fortifications were really strong, Allied armour would smash its way through the town and go on to take Rome. Drawing on the memories of veterans who fought at Mignano Gap, and on extensive archive research, this book presents a wide-ranging account of this major battle, and describes how close the 5th Army came to making the crucial breakthrough. The author served with the Green Jackets in World War II and his 1969 publication, "The Recollections of Rifleman Bowlby", was republished 20 years later.

The Force

The Force PDF Author: Saul David
Publisher: Hachette Books
ISBN: 0316414514
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description
Hailed as "masterly" (Wall Street Journal) and a "monumental achievement" (Douglas Brinkley), this book tells the riveting, true story of the group of elite US and Canadian soldiers who sacrificed everything to accomplish a crucial but nearly impossible WWII mission. In December of 1943, as Nazi forces sprawled around the world and the future of civilization hung in the balance, a group of highly trained U.S. and Canadian soldiers from humble backgrounds was asked to do the impossible: capture a crucial Nazi stronghold perched atop stunningly steep cliffs. The men were a rough-and-ready group, assembled from towns nested in North America's most unforgiving terrain, where many of them had struggled through the Great Depression relying on canny survival skills and the fearlessness of youth. Brought together by the promise to take part in the military's most elite missions, they formed a unique brotherhood tested first by the crucible of state-of-the-art training—including skiing, rock climbing, and parachuting—and then tragically by the vicious fighting they would face. The early battle in the Italian theatre for the strategic fort cost the heroic U.S.-Canadian commando unit—their first special forces unit ever assembled—enormous casualties. Yet the victory put them in position to continue their drive into Italy, setting the stage for the Allies' resurgence toward victory in WWII. The unit, with its vast range of capabilities and mission-specific exercises, became a model for the "Green Berets" and other special forces groups that would go on to accomplish America's most challenging undertakings behind enemy lines. Knitting first-hand accounts seamlessly into the narrative-drawing on interviews with surviving members and their families; the memoirs, letters, and diaries of Forcemen; and declassified documents in the American, Canadian, British, and German archives—The Force tells a story that is as deeply personal as it is inspiring.

The Day of Battle

The Day of Battle PDF Author: Rick Atkinson
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780805088618
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 852

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Book Description
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.

The Savage Storm

The Savage Storm PDF Author: James Holland
Publisher: Grove Press
ISBN: 0802161057
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 584

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Book Description
Acclaimed WWII historian James Holland both narrates and reframes the controversial first months of the Italian Campaign and sets a new standard in the chronicling of war Following victory in Sicily, while the central command planned the spring 1944 invasion of France, Allied troops crossed into southern Italy in September 1943, expecting to drive Axis forces north and liberate Rome by Christmas. Italy quickly surrendered but German divisions fiercely resisted, and the hoped-for quick victory descended into one of the most challenging and protracted battles of the entire war. James Holland’s The Savage Storm, chronicling the dramatic opening months of the Italian Campaign in unflinching and insightful detail, is unlike any campaign history yet written. Holland has always narrated war at ground level, but here goes further by chronicling events almost entirely through the contemporary eyes of those who were there on all sides and at all levels—Allied, Axis, civilians alike. Weaving together a wealth of letters, diaries, and other documents—from the likes of American General Mark Clark, German battalion commander Georg Zellner, New Zealand lance-corporal Roger Smith, legendary war reporter Ernie Pyle, and Italian politician Filippo Caracciolo—Holland traces the battles as they were experienced across plains, over mountains, through shattered villages and cities, in intense heat and, towards the end of December 1943, frigid cold and relentless rain. Such close-up views persuade Holland to recast important aspects of the campaign, reappraising the reputation of Mark Clark himself and other senior commanders of the U.S. Fifth and British Eighth armies. Given the shortage of Allied shipping and materiel allocated to Italy because of the build-up for D-Day, more was expected of Allied troops in Italy than anywhere else, and, as accounts at the time attest, a huge price was paid by everyone for each bloodily contested mile. Putting readers vividly in the moment as events unfolded, with characters made unforgettable by their own words, The Savage Storm is a defining account of the pivotal months leading to Monte Cassino, and a landmark in the writing about war.

The Western European and Mediterranean Theaters in World War II

The Western European and Mediterranean Theaters in World War II PDF Author: Donal Sexton
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135906874
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 583

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Book Description
The Western European and Mediterranean Theaters in World War II is a concise, comprehensive guide for students, teachers, and history buffs of the Second World War. With an emphasis on the American forces in these theaters, each entry is accompanied by a brief annotation that will allow researchers to navigate through the vast amount of literature on the campaigns fought in these regions with ease. Focusing on all aspects surrounding the U.S. involvement in the Western European and Mediterranean theaters, including politics, religion, biography, strategy, intelligence, and operations, this bibliography will be a welcome addition to the collection of any academic or research library. Routledge Research Guides to American Military Studies provide concise, annotated bibliographies to the major areas and events in American military history. With the inclusion of brief critical annotations after each entry, the student and researcher can easily assess the utility of each bibliographic source and evaluate the abundance of resources available with ease and efficiency. Comprehensive, concise, and current—Routledge Research Guides to American Military Studies are an essential research tool for any historian.

The Liberation Trilogy Box Set

The Liberation Trilogy Box Set PDF Author: Rick Atkinson
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company
ISBN: 1466855576
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 3473

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Book Description
The definitive chronicle of the Allied triumph in Europe during World War II, Rick Atkinson's Liberation Trilogy is now together in one ebook bundle From the War in North Africa to the Invasion of Normandy, the Liberation Trilogy recounts the hard fought battles that led to Allied victory in World War II. Pulitzer Prize-winning and New York Times bestselling author Rick Atkinson brings great drama and exquisite detail to the retelling of these battles and gives life to a cast of characters, from the Allied leaders to rifleman in combat. His accomplishment is monumental: the Liberation Trilogy is the most vividly told, brilliantly researched World War II narrative to date. WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Countdown to Victory

Countdown to Victory PDF Author: Barry Turner
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
ISBN: 1444764861
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 612

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Book Description
In standard histories of the Second World War, the last six months in the western European arena invariably make a short epilogue. After the German failure in the Battle of the Bulge, Hitler's bold counter attack across the Ardennes, the war is often assumed to have been all over bar sporadic shooting. This was far from the truth; it was certainly not how those soldiers and civilians at the front saw it. Drawing on American, British, Canadian, German, Dutch and Scandinavian sources, most of them previously unpublished, and starting with the Battle of the Bulge, COUNTDOWN TO VICTORY tells the little known story of those final months through the eyes of ordinary people who had to live the trauma.

The Veterans' Tale

The Veterans' Tale PDF Author: Frances Houghton
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108758150
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 307

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Book Description
This is a unique account of the ways in which British veterans of the Second World War remembered, understood, and recounted their experiences of battle throughout the post-war period. Focusing on themes of landscape, weaponry, the enemy, and comradeship, Frances Houghton examines the imagery and language used by war memoirists to reconstruct and review both their experiences of battle and their sense of wartime self. Houghton also identifies how veterans' memoirs became significant sites of contest as former servicemen sought to challenge what they saw as unsatisfactory official, scholarly, and cultural representations of the Second World War in Britain. Her findings show that these memoirs are equally important both for the new light they shed on the memory and meanings of wartime military experience among British veterans, and for what they tell us about the cultural identity of military life-writing in post-war British society.

The Decisive Campaigns of the Desert Air Force, 1942–1945

The Decisive Campaigns of the Desert Air Force, 1942–1945 PDF Author: Bryn Evans
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1473834813
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
“Absorbing . . . this is an excellent account of air operations and tactics of the air battles in North Africa, the Mediterranean, and Italy.”—Firetrench Compared to the RAF’s Fighter and Bomber Commands, the Desert Air Force (DAF) is far less well known, yet its achievements were spectacular. DAF led the way in North Africa and Italy in pioneering new tactics in close Army-Air Force cooperation on the battlefield; DAF and Allied air forces gave Allied armies in North Africa and Italy a decisive cutting edge. While the Axis forces used the many rivers and mountains of Tunisia and Italy to slow the Allies’ advance, DAF was there to provide that extra mobile firepower—the artillery from the sky. They were the first multinational air force, and the first to introduce air controllers in the front lines of the battlefield. With first-hand accounts by veteran airmen from Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and the USA, this book “tells the previously untold story of how the DAF was the most decisive single factor in winning the three battles of El Alamein, and victory in the North Africa and Italy campaigns” (Yorkshire Evening Post). “A most welcome addition to the historiography of the air aspects of the war in North Africa and the wider Mediterranean . . . [it] will have considerable appeal to a wide ranging readership, but especially those interested in the tactical detail and personal experiences of the airmen involved in the various campaigns.”—British Journal for Military History