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Domenic's War: A Story of the Battle of Monte Cassino

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Bombs, boys and saints.

Domenic's War mixes this trinity into the bloody WW2 battle for the mountaintop Monte Cassino Abbey founded by St. Benedict in 529 AD. The Allies--Americans, Canadians, French, Indians, Gurkhas, New Zealanders, British and Poles, land in Italy to defeat the occupying Germans and liberate Italy. The crack German troops in the Liri valley below the Abbey unleash a terrific and deadly defense. Thousands of brave soldiers are dying in the slaughter. Allied commanders are concerned that the Germans might be using the Abbey for shelter or as an observation post to direct artillery. Intel is inconclusive. The Allies decide to bomb the Abbey.

Domenic's War displays this titanic battle through the "smaller" but still deadly battles endured by two young local boys and their families trying to survive the unleashed military fury that roars and screams around them. Domenic becomes the man of the family when his father and older brother are forced to hide in the woods from German patrols looking for "forced labor." Domenic also risks his life taking food to Harry and Jerome--two downed British flyers hiding out in a nearby mill. Antonio's family is killed when an artillery shell destroys his home. Signore and Signora Rossi take Antonio into their family and flee to the Abbey for protection from the shelling. The protection is short-lived after waves of 1,000-pound Allied bombs obliterate the massive Abbey forcing Antonio, villagers and monks to scramble, walk and pray for safety in the valley below. Initially, Domenic and Antonio don't know each other but their separate stories for survival eventually converge near the end of the book.