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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very good, if not for a few oddities, November 19, 2008
This review is from: Italy's Sorrow: A Year of War, 1944-1945 (Hardcover)
I've never read anything by James Holland before. Apparently I'm going to have to get used to historians (to say nothing of a President) who are younger than I, which is something of a jarring experience. The current book, however, is a well-researched, well-written account of the course of the campaign in Italy, basically from the last battle of Cassino up through the end of the war. The author spends a lot of time (more than used to be the fashion) discussing the impact of the war on civilians, and he also spends a lot of time discussing the lives of individual soldiers on both sides of the lines.
Cassino was one of the most frustrating battles of the war, for the Allies, and the author starts with it, recounting briefly the earlier battles, then recounting in considerable detail the successful attack by the Poles. He also spends a lot of time talking about the famous attack out of the Anzio bridgehead by Mark Clark's Fifth Army, and interestingly defends Clark's decision to turn towards Rome and capture it, as opposed to moving to the fabled Valmontane, where Alexander had ordered him to go. Holland discusses this incident, and the produces a map which shows the main German retreat routes from the Cassino front. Only one of them goes through Valmontane, and the author lets you know this was an alternate, less-important, route. The four further north, out of reach of Clark's forces no matter what he did, were the significant ones. Very interesting thesis.
That, in some ways, was the highlight of the book. There's a great deal of information here about various forces and battles, later in the campaign, and much of the information is very well-presented and the judgements are thoughtful. There isn't, however, anything in the way of ground-breaking scholarship for the rest of the book.
I did have a few misgivings. At times Holland's understanding of military technology seems a bit weak. One passage includes a discussion of something called an "Ofenrohre". I'm not the world's greatest expert on German militaria, but I know a lot of other amateur experts, and none of us had ever heard the term. It turns out "Ofenrohre" means "stovepipe" in German, and that this was the nickname for the Panzerschrek. *That* we would have understood, but he didn't include the name in the text or anywhere else. At other points he seems to get confused about gun calibers and things of that nature. He also has an odd habit of referencing U.S. Infantry divisions by their divisional nicknames, and occasionally getting them a bit wrong. So for instance, he refers to the 92nd "Buffalo" Division, when of course it should be (if you're going to do it this way) the 92nd "Buffalo Soldier" Division. The term "Buffalo Soldier" traces back to the Indian wars, when said Indians thought a black person's hair looked like buffalo fur.
Those few misgivings aside, this is an interesting, well-written book. It includes a considerable amount of information, and the text is well-illustrated by enough maps for you to follow the action as to what's going on. I really enjoyed the book, and would recommend it.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent history of a forgotten conflict, September 8, 2010
This review is from: Italy's Sorrow: A Year of War, 1944-1945 (Hardcover)
Italy's Sorrow is the story of the often forgotten Italian campaign in WWII. Despite Soviet calls for a "second front" from 1942, somehow the 1943 invasion of Sicily, and subsequent slog up the Italian peninsula, did not even count as a second front in WWII, despite tying up a large number of German troops, especially after the Italian surrender, and then switching sides to fight alongside the Allies.
Nonetheless, the war in Italy was an important part of WWII, and James Holland tells the story well. All sides of the conflict are covered off - the Allied forces, including Free French and Polish troops as well as the GI's and Brits, and the German defenders under Kesselring, with the Italian people caught in the middle, whether as partisans, auxliaries to one side or other, or civilians.
The campaign is analysed from a military standpoint, but the impact on Italy itself is never overlooked. In Masters and Commanders and The Storm of War Andrew Roberts questioned the value of the Italian front after the capture of Rome, but Holland never considers the question - it is clear that to leave simply half of Italy in German hands and settle into defensive positions was not an option for democracies who claimed to be fighting for freedom. German atrocities against Italians are detailed, and the impact of the Allies was at times scarcely less brutal, especially the French colonial Goums.
When reading about D-Day and the second battle of France, the impact on civilian life - the collateral damage, in today's terms - is made clear. What is also clear after reading Italy's Sorrow is that Italy suffered far worse - perhaps rightly, as a former Nazi ally - and that this suffering can largely be laid at the feet of Il Duce Mussolini himself. A case could probably be made that Nazi Germany might have been better off with Italy remaning a friendly neutral in WWII, trading with Germany but not co-belligerant with it. With no North Africa and Greece to ensnare German troops to rescue Italian adventurism, the Eastern push might have been quite different in 1941-42. Certainly Italy would have been better off without entry into WWII, which ended with much of the country in ruins and a popultion starved and shell shocked by war.
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3.0 out of 5 stars
Good, but could have been better, December 26, 2011
This ultimately is a frustrating book. First, the positives: Holland does an effective job demonstrating just how awful the last year of WWII in Italy really was. He puts a human face on the campaign by drawing on the recollections of several people who suffered through the campaign, including Americans, Brits, Canadians, Kiwis, South Africans, Poles, Germans, and Italians of all stripes (civilians, partisans, and Fascists). Moreover, he more than adequately explains and interprets military strategy and operations, and delves into politics (particularly in the Allied camp) just enough to provide some context for military decisions. In short, I feel I have a good understanding of how and why the last year of the war in Italy unfolded the way it did. That said, "Italy's Sorrow" falls short in certain respects. Initially, while I understand that Holland wanted to focus on just the last year of the war, the book starts well into the Allied campaign to break the Gustav Line. This somewhat disconcertingly leaves the impression that at least a couple of preliminary chapters are missing. In addition, the book ends abruptly on May 2, 1945; there is a short postscript that describes what happened to the people the author quotes throughout his opus, but almost nothing beyond that. In light of the work's scope, these shortcomings (as well as a few awkward transitions in perspective) are forgiveable. However, stylistic inconsistency is not. The book sometimes reads well, but is riddled with many poorly written passages that would shame a college freshman. Over-repetition also is a problem, as is the occasional factual howler (e.g., early on, Holland describes pre-war Poland as a "beacon of democracy," when it in fact was an authoritarian state). An editor could easily fix these problems, so here's hoping the publisher decides to release a revised edition. If it does, then "Italy's Sorrow" could stand out as a definitive work on its subject.
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