Publisher's Weekly Review
After victories in North Africa and Sicily, the Allies invaded Italy in September 1943 and quickly bogged down, as German commander Kesselring fought a brilliant defensive campaign aided by miserable weather and primitive, mountainous terrain. To break the stalemate in January 1944, two Allied divisions landed behind German lines at Anzio, encountering surprisingly little resistance. Within days, German units rushed to the small beachhead for some of the most concentrated, brutal, bloody fighting outside the Russian front. British historian Clark delivers an absorbing account of the terrible battle. Historians criticize the force's commander, Gen. John Lucas, for not pushing inland to cut off the Germans or even capture Rome, though Lucas insisted he had too few men. Clark agrees, but adds that Lucas should have advanced far enough to occupy a stronger defensive position. By February, the Allies had secured the beachhead and the energetic Lucian Truscott took over from Lucas, but it was not until May that troops broke out. Clark does not rock any historical boats, but he tells a relentlessly fascinating story with plenty of asides about individuals' experiences. Carlo D'Este's 1991 history may still be the best on the subject, but no reader will be disappointed with Clark's. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
A rich account of the campaign Winston Churchill called "a story of high opportunity and shattered hopes, of skillful inception on our part and swift recovery by the enemy, of valor shared by both." The Italian theater, writes Clark (War Studies/Royal Military Academy Sandhurst), has long fallen in the shadows of Overlord and what the British call the North West European Campaign, to the extent that most moderns cannot name a single battle--except, perhaps, Anzio, an effort to land Allied troops and secure central Italy. As Gen. Mark Clark boasted, his VI Corps would thus be "the first army in fifteen centuries to seize Rome from the south." His ambitions were realized, but only after a long winter's fighting along a "mere sixteen miles of front" into which more than 300,000 men were crowded, with the Germans and Allies roughly equivalent in number. But the Germans were, Clark demonstrates, for the most part better led; the American frontline commander, John Lucas, was singularly ineffective. He recognized his own disinclination to bold action, but only when Lucian Truscott replaced him did the Allied forces break through a tightly coordinated, bitterly held German defensive line. For all the strategic and tactical planning in the world, battles are a collection of odd moments, and Clark ably recounts several memorable ones: Hitler calmly receiving the news that Kesselring's armies were being thrown back; an American parachutist complaining that the Luftwaffe-targeted rear was less safe than the front, "where we had to endure only machine guns, machine pistols, rifle, mortar, small antitank gun, 75, 105, 88, and occasional 150 and 170 mm fire"; and Churchill complaining of the whole enterprise, "I thought we should fling a wild-cat ashore and all we got was an old stranded whale on the beach," among many others. Clark does much to disprove the Italian campaign's reputation as a sideshow. Highly readable, and of much interest to students of WWII history. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
For the Allies in World War II, the fighting in Italy was miserable, frustrating, and, to critics, strategically questionable. Clark, a perceptive and empathic historian posted at Britain's military academy, concentrates on an episode that embodied the problems of the Italian campaign: the landing at Anzio near Rome in January 1944. Clark describes the Allies' disagreement at the top levels over the wisdom of the operation. American strategists disliked it as a logistical drain on the imminent cross-channel attack; its British advocates thought an Anzio coup would unhinge the German military in Italy. Clark then lets the battle unfold: the landing, quickly immobilized by the German army, degenerates into a five-month battle of attrition. While riflemen die by the thousands, a harrowing decimation Clark evokes in grim excerpts from survivors, battlefield commander John Lucas seems unable to control the situation and becomes the official scapegoat for Anzio's failure. Understanding both generals' plans and the feel of mud in a trench, Clark integrates all aspects of Anzio in this high-quality battle history. --Gilbert Taylor Copyright 2006 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Overshadowed by the Allied invasion at Normandy in 1944 and the subsequent Northwestern Europe campaign, the Italian campaign is mentioned only occasionally and the landings at Anzio even less so, autobiographies notwithstanding. Clark (war studies, Royal Military Acad., Sandhurst) has written a conversant, evenhanded account of the Anzio landing and the battle for the liberation of Rome. In late 1943, after considerable political jockeying on strategy, the British Allies gained approval to invade Italy and, in January 1944, to land at Anzio in an attempt to break through the formidable German defenses, the Gustav Line. American preoccupation with planning for the Normandy Invasion kept the Anzio forces from taking advantage of initial German weaknesses that might have led to an earlier liberation of Rome. Anzio nearly became a death trap; it wasn't until early May that the stalemate was finally broken and, on June 4, Rome liberated. Clark includes the accounts of American, British, and German eyewitnesses at all levels of participation, which gives an immediacy to the narrative. He is as flatly objective as he can be, especially considering the egos and the mistakes involved here on all sides. Recommended for all collections. David Lee Poremba, Davenport, FL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
