Books on the Italian campaign?

[Martyr]

I've been reading feverishly along with every iteration of CM: books on the Western Front when CMBO was out, on the Russian-German war for these many months past, and now on the desert war this fall.

What's missing from my library are good treatments of the Italian campaign (including Sicily). Would someone send some recommendations my way? A cursory survey suggests that this may be the least-discussed theater of WW2.

[Becket]

I'm pleased with Katz's Battle for Rome and Jenkins' The Last Ridge so far. I'm sure someone much grogg-ier will be along shortly to steer you to additional books.

[Michael Dorosh]

A search of this forum will show the question has been answered many times.

The Battle of Sicily by Mitcham and von Stauffenberg is well recommended, as is D-Day Dodgers by Dan Dancocks. There are others in the aforementioned threads.

[Martyr]

Well, the only full-on discussion that comes up via a search for "books Italian" doesn't suggest any histories of the whole Italian campaign. All the books mentioned seem to be devoted to particular battles (Sicily, Cassino) or else to particular units.

While on the topic, has anyone read "War in Italy 1943-1945: A Brutal Story," by Richard Lamb? Would you recommend it?

Thanks.

[General Bolt]

Salerno - Hugh Pond. Covers the first week of Italy the invasion. Both the Brit and Ami sectors.

[JonS]

Specifically on Sicily, this seems a reasonable list: Sicily at S&S (http://www.sonic.net/~bstone/archives/960101.shtml)

Post-Sicily, I found "Tug of war (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0340343478/qid=1073112192/sr=1-4/ref=sr_1_4/002-1689335-6825647?v=glance&s=books)" by Bidwell and Graham to be pretty good. Both authors fought there, but this isn't about their personal experiences. The emphasis is on Allied ops, but it isn't a 'gee willickers, didn't we do a smashing job' kind of pean.

There is a firly extensive - but un-annotated - list of books on the Italian campaign here. (http://books.stonebooks.com/cgi-bin/foxweb.exe/base/subjects?1000031)

Regards
JonS

[Michael Emrys]

You might try Stone & Stone (http://www.sonic.net/~bstone/about_us.shtml). They are a clearinghouse for many bookstores devoted to military books. I looked in just now and found 32 titles just under the Monte Cassino heading. One warning though, the stores that they list are apt to be pricey, and if you hit on a title that interests you, you might want to do some comparison shopping ( with Amazon, Powells, etc.) before placing an order.

Michael

[Emar]

Martyr

Per your Question on Mr Lambs book War in Italy...

Reading the title I had the same thought.
Picked it up at the library last week with the hope that it might be useful with some scenarios I am working on.

After looking through it however. it turned out to be mainly a discussion of Kesselring's and other officers apparent participation in war crimes and atrocities. At a glance most of the chapters seemed dedicated to citing specific instances of partisan reprisals, deportation of civilians, captured Italian soldiers sent to work camps, etc. The Gist of it seemed to be that the author felt that Kesselring should lose his title of an honourable opponent given to him by the Allies who opposed him and should have been instead charged with war crimes.

Interesting reading no doubt but pretty useless as far as the CM level of the war goes. :(

[ January 03, 2004, 02:49 AM: Message edited by: Emar ]

[Martyr]

Thanks, Emar and everyone. I glanced at Lamb's book in a store recently, but had no time to assess it.

I'll take a look at the links posted too. It's good to have such a font of knowledge on one board!

Cheers,
Martyr

[Moon]

We also have some recommended titles listed on the CMAK Bibliography webpage (http://www.battlefront.com/products/cmak/biblio.html)

[Breakthrough]

The US Army Center for Military History is also a great source. Three volumes are dedicated to the Italian Campaign. There is also a pictorial history and map companion for the Med Theatre.

[ricky77]

Clear the Way!: History of the 38th (Irish) Brigade, 1941-47
Charts the history the Irish Brigade from North Africa,Italy and Yugoslavia