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The Bargain Nexus - The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 (Liberation Trilogy)
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List Price: $17.00
Our Price: $9.70
Your Save: $ 7.30 ( 43% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Holt Paperbacks
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 940
EAN: 9780805088618
ISBN: 080508861X
Label: Holt Paperbacks
Manufacturer: Holt Paperbacks
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 848
Publication Date: 2008-09-16
Publisher: Holt Paperbacks
Release Date: 2008-09-16
Studio: Holt Paperbacks
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: I hope the third installment is as good!
Comment: This is an excellent follow on to "An Army at Dawn". These books should be required reading in all high school history classes.
Atkinson gives you a view of the war's events from several different perspectives quoting official documents all the way to letters home. All in all a very interesting read which will give you yet another reason to admire the men and women who fought for us.
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Summary: great book
Comment: Outstanding combination of presentation of the Italian campaign in terms of overall strategy as well as details of battles at individual unit/soldier level. The writing is superb and truly brings the War in Italy alive. The author gives us a real understanding of the major individual military commanders and political figures as well as the rivalries between the Americans and the British. The enormous challenges of getting the two armies to function as one are also covered extremely well - plus the added factors of integration of the allied air and naval forces.
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Summary: Long Awaited Second Volume of the Trilogy
Comment: Rick Atkinson's THE DAY OF BATTLE takes up where AN ARMY AT DAWN left off. The United States, British, and other Allied forces prepare for the invasion of Sicily prior to the defeat of Panzer Armee Afrika in Tunisia. Landing in Sicily the Allied forces conquer the island in 30 days. Despite flagging Italian resistance, German troops give the Allies a taste of what they can expect on the Italian mainland. In an economy of force mission the Germans inflict heavy casualties on British and American forces before abandoning the island in a textbook evacuation. Sicily, however, is only the beginning of the story. American and British commanders are constantly at odds regarding the conduct of the mainland campaign with their operational agreements seemingly becoming disagreements. The British Eighth Army lands on the toe of the Italian boot and makes very little effort to move inland. The Americans subsequently land at Salerno and come under heavy German counterattack. With the Italian surrender the Germans forfeit a third of the peninsula as they move to a series of prepapred positions north of Naples.
From this point Atkinson recounts the attacks, counterattacks, wholesale slaughters due to uncoordinated attacks and faulty intelligence. Despite a brilliant amphibious landing at Anzio, US General Mark Clark finds his army floundering on the Anzio beachhead, as well as stalled before Cassino. Clark knows the upcoming invasion of France will divert resources from the Italian front and so he hurls his corps against the Germans until a breakthrough is achieved in spring 1944. Despite Clark's claim to the contrary, he has no intention of allowing anyone but the Americans to be the first to march through Rome. Although his wish is eventually fulfilled, it is also steeped in controversy as to whether or not his push to enter an open city allowed German forces to escape up the center of the peninsula.
As with AN ARMY AT DAWN, Atkinson's volume is steeped in first hand accounts, official military reports, and includes letters written by generals and common soldiers alike. In reading THE DAY OF BATTLE it is clearly evident that the weather and terrain were the most daunting Allied adveraries.
Overall the book is very good reading. Much like the first volume of the series, Atkinson does not spend and inordinate amount of time on the pre-invasion preparations. The bulk of the book is devoted to the military campaign. Also note that THE DAY OF BATTLE essentially concludes with the capture of Rome. The battle narrative does not cover later 1944 and early 1945 battles in the rugged terrain north of Rome.
The one opportunity is in the placement of maps in the book. As I found with other military history books it is good to keep a detailed Second World War atlas close at hand to follow the action. Atkinson's book does have detailed maps throughout the narrative, but their placement is not calibrated to the verbiage. More often than not the map covering the activity on one page is several pages deeper in the book rather than at the beginning of the chapter. Atkinson writes with a lot of on-the-ground detail and it is frustratingly difficult to keep up with this outstanding research when relying on the skimpy maps in the book.
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Summary: Wonderful
Comment: This is an extraordinarily well-researched military history that also manages to fully convey the human tragedy of Allied operations in Italy. I truly thank Mr. Atkinson for devoting his considerable skills to this subject. My father served in the 36th Infantry Division and was badly wounded at San Pietro. Of all the young guys he went through training with, he was the only one who made it home (you know things are bad when you're "lucky" to have just been badly-wounded). An awful lot of young guys died in Italy and I'm grateful to Mr. Atkinson for paying attention to their sacrifices.
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Summary: We can learn from the past
Comment: Mr. Atkinson produced a wonderful product. In the second of his trilogy of World War II, he has written an accurate historical document while giving the reader a real feel for the human beings involved. Further, he allowed historical quotes from those involved to draw conclusions about the campaign that still trouble many some 65 years later. I eagerly await Part Three!
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Editorial Reviews:
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“A triumph of narrative history, elegantly written, thick with unforgettable description and rooted in the sight and sounds of battle.”—The New York Times In An Army at Dawn—winner of the Pulitzer Prize—Rick Atkinson provided a dramatic and authoritative history of the Allied triumph in North Africa. Now, in The Day of Battle, he follows the strengthening American and British armies as they invade Sicily in July 1943 and then, mile by bloody mile, fight their way north toward Rome. The Italian campaign’s outcome was never certain; in fact, Roosevelt, Churchill, and their military advisers engaged in heated debate about whether an invasion of the so-called soft underbelly of Europe was even a good idea. But once under way, the commitment to liberate Italy from the Nazis never wavered, despite the agonizingly high price. The battles at Salerno, Anzio, and Monte Cassino were particularly difficult and lethal, yet as the months passed, the Allied forces continued to drive the Germans up the Italian peninsula. Led by Lieutenant General Mark Clark, one of the war’s most complex and controversial commanders, American officers and soldiers became increasingly determined and proficient. And with the liberation of Rome in June 1944, ultimate victory at last began to seem inevitable. Drawing on a wide array of primary source material, written with great drama and flair, this is narrative history of the first rank. With The Day of Battle, Atkinson has once again given us the definitive account of one of history’s most compelling military campaigns.
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