Monte Cassino: The Hardest-Fought Battle of World War IIMonte Cassino is the true story of one of the bitterest and bloodiest of the Allied struggles against the Nazi army. Long neglected by historians, the horrific conflict saw over 350,000 casualties, while the worst winter in Italian memory and official incompetence and backbiting only worsened the carnage and turmoil. Combining groundbreaking research in military archives with interviews with four hundred survivors from both sides, as well as soldier diaries and letters, Monte Cassino is both profoundly evocative and historically definitive. Clearly and precisely, Matthew Parker brilliantly reconstructs Europe’s largest land battle–which saw the destruction of the ancient monastery of Monte Cassino–and dramatically conveys the heroism and misery of the human face of war. |
Contents
The Gustav Line | |
Into the Gustav Line | |
THE FIRST BATTLE | |
Bloody River | |
Anzio and Cassino | |
THE THIRD BATTLE | |
Castle Hill | |
The Green Devils of Cassino | |
THE FOURTH BATTLE | |
BreakIn | |
Amazon Bridge | |
The Monastery | |
Surviving the Peace | |
The Cassino Massif | |
THE SECOND BATTLE | |
Snakeshead Ridge | |
Lull at Cassino Counterattack at Anzio | |
Acknowledgments | |
Notes | |
Select Bibliography | |
Other editions - View all
Monte Cassino: The Story of One of the Hardest-fought Battles of World War Two Matthew Parker No preview available - 2003 |
Common terms and phrases
34th Division 4th Indian Division 5th Army Allied American Anzio arrived artillery attack Battalion battle Battle of Cassino Beacham Bill Mauldin bombing bridge bridgehead Brigade British 4th British 4th Division British X Corps captured castle casualties Clark combat commander Corps counterattack crossing dead defensive Denis Beckett diary Division's Eggert enemy engineers Essex February fighting force forward fought French Freyberg front line Fusiliers Garigliano German going grenades gunner Gurkhas Gustav Line Hangman's Hill high ground Ibid infantry interview Italian Italy January Kesselring killed landing Liri valley machine gun fire March massif Milligan monastery Monte Cassino mortar mountain moved Naples night officer paratroopers Pittaccio platoon Polish positions prisoners quoted Rapido Rapido River Regiment remembers rifle river road Rome Salerno to Cassino says shells side Snakeshead soldiers soon started tanks took town troops units Valvori wounded wrote yards Zealand