Cassino: Portrait of a Battle (Cassell Military Classics) [Paperback]

Fred Majdalany (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 30, 2000

Few battles compare with the famous, bitterly fought, and controversial World War Two conflict at Cassino, where German forces determined to prevent the Allies from reaching Rome. A former infantry office, who took part in this encounter relates its agonizing history, from the highest level down to the actions of individual soldiers, including the disagreements between British and American commanders and the crucial impact of Italy's geography.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Fred Majdalany was born in Manchester in 1913. During the war he fought in North Africa, Sicily and Italy, was wounded and was awarded the M.C. In the closing months of the war, when he was Chief Instructor of an OCTU, he wrote his first novel, The Monastery, which has since been adapted for BBC transmission. From 1946 he wrote for the Daily Mail.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Cassell (June 30, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0304352322
• ISBN-13: 978-0304352326
• Product Dimensions: 1 x 5 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #737,703 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Second best, yet still very good., August 4, 2000

By 

Mitch Reed (Washington DC, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cassino: Portrait of a Battle (Cassell Military Classics) (Paperback)

With "Cassino:The Hollow Victory" by Ellis being the standard, this book is a close second. It is also much easier to find, which avid military readers must keep in mind. The book starts out with the overall situation of the Italian front, describes the importance of Cassino, and descibes to battle to the reader. It seems like every book on the Italian Campaign sets up the books topic (compare with books on the Bulge and D-Day), the reader who is knowledgeable will breeze thru it and get to the heart of the book. If you can't find Ellis's work, grab this one.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Succinct Overview, June 11, 2002

By 

R. J Szasz "Rod Szasz" (Tokyo, Japan Japan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cassino: Portrait of a Battle (Cassell Military Classics) (Paperback)

There may be many things that people can find wrong with this book: not enough perpective from the German side, not enough linking it to the general political strategies for the push in Italy, etc. It is however rightly regarded as "The" classic account of this battle. The book roughly describes the 4 phases of the battle that went on over 6 months.

1) The initial poorly prepared, and exhausted, American attack across the Rapido, how it was doomed to failure from the start.

2) The initial battle of the ridges behind the town and the rough complex night and day engagements on the ridge between the Indian/ Gurkha companies and the German Paratruops (now there is the very definition of tough fighting; Gurkhas and German Paratruppen).

3) The attack of the marvellously well-equipped New Zealand Division in the town and the brutal house to house fighting and close in urban combat that went absolutely nowhere.

4) The last phase where, after trememdous build up and a weaking of the German defences to shore up Anzio, British-Commonwealth, Polish and French troops pushed in and broke the line after some of the most intense bombardment of the war.

One should not forget that Majdalaney fought in these battles and has an eye for detail. He maintains that although the Germans were on the surrounding heights of the monastery, they were scupulous in trying to move out the civilians and priests and never violated the Abbey. But it was never necessary that they be in the monestary anyway since the high ground around the monastery more than met the German observation needs.

Majdalany also ties in the battle well with the events in Anzio and how the Cassino battle played in counterpoint with that on the beaches. I am sure that there will always be another 800 page opus on any battle, the product of our societie's obsession with the word processing software, that will offer ever more detail, but for a measured history covering all of the main points of the battle --- all in under 300 pages ---- then it will be hard to beat Majdalany.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good book from the perspective of the Allies, November 1, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Cassino: Portrait of a Battle (Cassell Military Classics) (Paperback)

This book describes in detail the four battles for Cassino from the Allied perspective. It has many good points. For example the clarification of why Mountain tops are important even if they do not have troops on top (they are observation bastions that can direct artillery fire to any place in the map). Also during the description of the operations it makes clear the point that a Division on attack does not attack shoulder-to-shoulder with all available strenght. Rather one or a few of the Infantry battalions (which use one or two of its companies) attack to establish an initial penetration and then other battalions held in reserve use this penetrations as springboards for further attacks. If the attack fails the battalions in reserve may not even attack at all.
Although allied operations are described in detail and its order of battle established sometimes to the Company level, it almost forgets the German side. For much of the book you only know that they are fighting the "Germans" and their defensive maneuvers and countermeasures are either not described at all or they are commented at a very general level.
All in all it is a book worth reading. One has to remember only that its scope is the Allied offensive operations.