Book Recommendations

[GerryCMBB]

Hello All:

Any good recommendations for reading about Sicily. Could also include the mainland. Nothing too dense preferably.

Thanks in advance,

Gerry

[WriterJWA]

Here's one:

The Day of Battle by Rick Atkinson

http://www.amazon.com/The-Day-Battle-1943-1944-Liberation/dp/080508861X/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b

[__Yossarian0815[jby]]

Hitler's Mediterranean Gamble

by Douglas Porch

[Michael Emrys]

Here's one:

The Day of Battle by Rick Atkinson

http://www.amazon.com/The-Day-Battle-1943-1944-Liberation/dp/080508861X/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b

Greatly agree with that, although his narrative stops with the capture of Rome, leaving off the last 11 months of the war.

Also recommend Martin Blumenson Sicily: Whose Victory? if you can find a copy.

Both these books are excellent, but told from the American perspective. So you should look for authors who are able to give the matter from the point of view of the other nationalities involved.

Michael

[Michael Emrys]

;1372777']Hitler's Mediterranean Gamble

by Douglas Porch

I read this under a different title, The Path to Victory and didn't think much of it. Caveat emptor YMMV.

Michael

[James Crowley]

Bitter Victory: The Battle for Sicily 1943

by Carlo D'Este

Lots of detail and very readable.

[JonS]

I very much enjoyed Gooderson's "A hard way to make a war", but it probably won't be to many folks' taste. It is excellent for understanding Allied strategy and opertions, but useless if you're after tales of derring-do. And, like most books on the Italian campaign, it spends about 15% on pre-Husky, 30% on Husky, 20% on Avalanche, 25% on Cassino-Anzio, and about 10 pages covering the whole last year of the war. Mind you, given the approach that Goodeson has taken in this book, that kind of weighting makes sense, whereas in a lot of Italian campaign books you get the distinct impression that after the fall of Rome the author got bored, and just wanted to get it over with. (Gooderson is the same guy who wrote the seminal "Airpower at the battlefront")

Bidwell & Graham's "Tug of war" is also very good.

Atkinson writes very well, but I found his take on things to be rather gushy, hyperbolic, and over dramatic. And also a bit confused regarding the exact sequenceing of complex and overlapping operations. D'Este or the various Official Historys are much better, I think.

There is, also, a surprisingly large volume of really good primary sources on the Italian available at the US CGSC CARL digital library (go to 'World War II Operational Documents'). Some of the Lessons Learned documents make for very interesting reading.

[Mord]

All the Way To Berlin By James Megellas...has some good first person stuff on the 82nd in Italy. I couldn't get into it the first time I tried to read it. But I went back after reading this guy Larso's review (JonS knows who I mean) and it ended up being pretty cool. I liked it enough to think, too bad we won't be seeing Italy in CMX2. LOL. Boy did I get a surprise.

Mord.

[mjkerner]

Those Devils in Baggy Pants, by 504th/82nd AB vet Ross Carter, and Gavin's book, blanking the name at the moment, are very good. Magellis' book too as Mord pointed out.

[JonS]

Larso's reviews (JonS knows who I mean)

Yup. He's been a busy boy, and his reviews are nice little potted synopses.

[Collingwood]

Bitter Victory: The Battle for Sicily 1943

by Carlo D'Este

I second that recommendation, and you might like to follow that up with

Fatal Decision: Anzio and the Battle for Rome by the same author.

[grunt_GI]

If you can find it, this book would be an excellent companion to Rick Atkinson's--which I really liked.

Italy's Sorrow: A Year of War, 1944-1945

http://www.amazon.com/Italys-Sorrow-Year-War-1944-1945/dp/B0043RTAHA/ref=la_B001HPCROY_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1340924048&sr=1-5

[A co]

'And no Birds Sang' by Farley Mowat. Memoir of a Canadian Infantry officer in Italy. Very good book, describes the exhaustion of prolonged fighting.

'Anzio, Epic of Bravery' by Fred Sheehan is a good history of the battle, by a participant.

Zbigniew Lalak's ''4th armoured Regiment 'Skorpion'' is a good unit history for a Polish Sherman outfit in italy. Published by Pegaz-Biz.

Also, though it's a memoir of the air war over Sicily, Steinhoff's 'Strait's of Messina' conveys the fatalism and hopelessness of the German situation at that time, like no other book I've read.

[JonS]

'And no Birds Sang' by Farley Mowat. Memoir of a Canadian Infantry officer in Italy. Very good book, describes the exhaustion of prolonged fighting.

Strongly concur. The Recollections of Rifleman Bowlby is another excellent memoir (But I found Mowat's to be more affecting).

[Michael Emrys]

...and Gavin's book, blanking the name at the moment...

On to Berlin. One of the better memoirs by a division commander.

Michael

[Mord]

Yup. He's been a busy boy, and his reviews are nice little potted synopses.

I really like his early system where he had the different categories broke down and rated. Gave you a good idea of what you could expect with a glance. I got quite a few books for Christmas based off those. Thanks again for showing me that thread.

Mord.

[kohlenklau]

I rather enjoyed "The Battle of Sicily: How the allies lost their chance for total victory" by Samuel W. Mitcham Jr and Friedrich von Stauffenberg. It tells the story slightly more from the German side about how General Hans Valentin Hube, commander of XIV Panzer Corps pulled off a Dunkirk, etc.

Also, a side note I have to pull out my VHS copy of International Historic Videos with the appropriate weekly German newsreel Die Deutshce Volkenshau to watch the FJ jumping into Sicily as reinforcements. Plus other German footage from Sicily. And maybe watch Big Red One with Lee Marvin...I better get a bottle or 2 of vino rosso.

[Sybma]

Anyone read Monte Cassino, Peter Caddick Adams already? Willing to buy it but no reviews available yet.

Thanks,

Harold

[MikeyD]

If you like pretty pictures there's the Concord 'Armor at War' series #7023. "Panzers in Italy 1943-45" by Tim Cockle. 72-ish pages, high quality photos. The introduction has a concise synopsis of events in Sicily bit only a few genuine 'Sicily' pictures.

[Broadsword56]

Good ground-level GI's view fiction, set in the Salerno campaign among the Texans of the 36th Infantry Division. Only $4.95 for Kindle edition, so it's going to be my in-flight entertainment next weekend:

The Texas Gun Club

http://http://www.amazon.com/Texas-Gun-Club-Mark-Bowlin/dp/1933651555

[mjkerner]

Thanks for the recommendation, B. Now, get yer ass back home ASAP so you can send me the next turnfile!

[Childress]

I'm 2/3 the way through Rick Atkinson's book. A great read, as has been mentioned, but not especially for grogs. Those who crave minutiae on penetrations tables, MG ROFs or the armor resilience of the StuG IIIF/8- look elsewhere. The book inspired a few random thoughts:

1- Italy's mountainous terrain created a paradise for Forward Observers.

2- The campaign was a charnel house, uglier than Normandy, particularly for the Allies. They seem to have come off the worst, in terms of losses, in every major engagement. E.g., 55k at Cassino vs 20k for the Germs.

3- The Germans treated the locals abominably with their (mostly) unremunerated requisitions and press gangs.

4- Until mid-1944 most of the American and many British formations should be, in CM terms, rated Green.

5- Salerno and Anzio were close run affairs and most likely would have ended in debacle without naval gunfire support.

6- Many of the Allied commanders were acutely PR sensitive and suffered from overweening vanity. Clark, Montgomery and Patton- who added a psycopathic streak- come to mind. Kesselring comes off as a more impressive man.

7- The Battle of the Rapido River was a disgrace to American arms, showing a callous unconcern for the lives of GIs.

[JonS]

2- The campaign was a charnel house, uglier than Normandy, particularly for the Allies. They seem to have come off the worst, in terms of losses, in every major engagement. E.g., 55k at Cassino vs 20k for the Germs.

And yet, across the whole campaign, the germans used more men and suffered greater losses.

3- The Germans treated the locals abominably with their (mostly) unremunerated requisitions and press gangs ...

... and a fairly steady stream of Oradour-sur-Glane style atrocities.

5- Salerno and Anzio were close run affairs and most likely would have ended in debacle without naval gunfire support.

This is where Atkinson really comes up short as a writer, I think. He tells a ripping yarn, but he tends to go long on sensationalism, and also simplifies things to accentuate points he want's to make. There was some really hard fighting at both Anzio and Salerno, but I don't think either was "most likely" to end in debacle, and neither was solely dependant on naval gunfire for their survival.

6- Many of the Allied commanders were acutely PR sensitive and suffered from overweening vanity. Clark, Montgomery and Patton- who added a psycopathic streak- come to mind. Kesselring comes off as a more impressive man.

No doubt about Clark, Montgomery, and Patton, although vanity and PR sensitivity were a long way from fully defining any of them, even Clark. The Allies had some outstanding commanders in this theatre too, including Truscott and Juin.

Citino's "Whermacht Retreats" has some rather interesting things to say about Kesselring, not all of them very flattering.

[John Kettler]

For those of you who doubt the importance of Naval Gunfire Support to combat operations in Sicily and Italy, I suggest you read and grok this. It's taken from a Command & Staff School paper called Keeping The "Gunfire" In Naval Gunfire Support

AUTHOR LCdr. Mark C. Kelsey, USN

....The contributions of naval guns in various World War II

amphibious operations, such as the landings on Sicily and at Salerno

in Italy, clearly demonstrated the decisive role of naval gunnery in

blunting major infantry and armored reserve counterattacks against

landing forces. In Sicily, naval gunfire supported our own advancing

troops, up to eight miles inland. "So devastating in its effective-

ness," wrote General Eisenhower, was this shooting, "as to dispose

of any doubts that naval guns are suitable for shore bombardment."

(17: 258) During the initial stages in the European Theater, the major

caliber gun (8-inch and larger) platforms defeated axis armored

counterattacks, primarily by stripping them of their infantry and

engineer support. On 14 September, 1943, after naval gunfire from (at

least 16 to 18) battleships, cruisers and destroyers had helped to

blunt the German counterattack at Salerno, Panzer commander General

Vietinghoff wrote, "with astonishing precision and freedom of

maneuver, these ships shot at every recognized target with over-

whelming effect. "The next day, Marshal Kesselring ordered a general

retirement, "in order to evade effective shelling from warships."

So, both sides' senior commanders are in complete agreement here. Full paper at link

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/1991/KMC.htm

Am still looking for the online version of a superb study FMC (builder of the planned 8" Major Caliber Lightweight Gun) did on the history and efficacy of U.S. NGF in World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

Regards,

John Kettler

[John Kettler]

Found it! Butt ugly version, but the text is here. Pity about the pics and maps.

NAVL GUNFIRE SUPPORT OF AMPHIBIOUS OPERATIONS: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA051873File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML

by DM Weller - 1977

A must read, seminal study on the topic!

Regards,

John Kettler