CASSINO 44

It should become a standard work on this campaign Telegraph James Holland is now our foremost authority on the Italian campaign John C McManus A heart pounding narrative of the brutal Allied fight to take Rome This is history at its finest James M Scott Pulitzer Prize finalist Holland writes with eloquence and power about the harsh realities of a brutal battle that grabbed the world s attention and helped to decide the future of Italy Professor Michael S Neiberg There are no such thing as an easy victory in war but after triumph in Tunisia the sweeping success of the Sicilian invasion and with the Italian surrender the Allies were confident that they would be in Rome before Christmas 1943 And yet it didn t happen Hitler ordered his forces to dig in and fight for every yard thus setting the stage for one of the grimmest and most attritional campaigns of the Second World War By the start of 1944 the Allies found themselves coming up against the Gustav Line a formidable barrier of wire minefields bunkers and booby traps woven into a giant chain of mountains and river valleys that stretched the width of Italy where at its strongest point perched the Abbey of Monte Cassino It would take five long bitter winter months and the onset of summer