Customer Reviews

The War North of Rome: June 1944 - May 1945

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a welcome book as it covers a neglected campaign, but the book is marred by an impression of sloppiness. If the publishers had provided better maps they might have realized that often left is used when it should be right, east instead of west, an endless series of misstatements geographically. As the book is a compilation of army and divisional histories, it often ignores actions not covered in its sources, creating many disconcerting gaps. For example the 8th Army storms one river line, then the book goes to a chapter or two on the 5th Army, and when it returns to the 8th Army it has advanced unnoticed twenty or thirty miles further. Sometimes it seems if no one cared: in the final chapter half the footnotes disappeared. It's a good book and worth the price, but you cannot help wishing a little more effort had been made: in the end it must be described as the best we are going to get.

I originally bought the hardcover edition for research purposes. It doesn't have the narrative flow of Rick Atkinson's "An Army at Dawn" and is a bit of a slog for the casual reader. However, there are many gems contained within, such as references to the Polish troops whose heroism was rewarded at the Yalta Conference by turning them over to the Russians after the war. There is little reference to the role played by the various air forces in both tactical and strategic support, and I found that disappointing. However, the assault on the Gothic Line is pretty well covered, and there is a blizzard of details on troop movements. The action is presented in a very dry, forthright manner. It depends more on official reports than on first hand accounts. I'd still buy it as a reference work, though another reviewer presents a good case for carefully checking other sources too.

I read this book while I was living in Italy, so I found it even more interesting. The fall of Rome happened the same time the Invasion of Normandy did, and with the Battles in Western Europe raging on, this arena of combat has allways been overlooked. While few can name any key battles after the fall of Rome, the combat was as heroic and bloody as in any theater. Brooks does an amazing job of recanting this remarkable campaign. The level of detail is superb, and the book was very easy to read. The vast types of units that are described (US Mountain troops, Ethnic units, and varoius allies) makes the book even more enjoyable. This might be a tough book to find, however keep trying, it is well worth it.

The War North of Rome offers and excellent review of the movements of Allied combat units in the face of their German nemesis in the last two years of World War II. The book is well written and moves at an enjoyable pace, bridging the strategic and tactical movements with personal accounts of heroism and the struggles of the common Allied soldier slogging through incredibly difficult terrain and a dogged enemy. My criticisms of the book are three-fold. First, the maps provided are very limited. Unless you have a detailed knowledge of the villages, rivers, mountains and highways in Italy, it is very difficult to follow the concise descriptions of troop movements in any meaningful way (the photos provided are generally uninteresting, general and non-descript to the actions taking place). Second, while there are good references to the thoughts and actions of the German commanders, there are no accounts of the common German soldier beyond information passed along from prisoners that the bombings were demoralizing. After all, the conditions including total lack of air support, unbearable and constant shelling, and the effect of constant retreat and death for the Axis are as viable and telling as the impact of weather and constant advance for the allies. I would have liked at least a few personal accounts from the Axis grunts to help balance out the book. Finally, the end is too rushed. The Allies sweep over the Po and the Germans surrender May 2. It would have been interesting to me to see the conditions of surrender and a discussion of those involved especially as fractured units endeavoured to hold on, retreat into Austria, or surrender independently. Overall, this is an excellent military read on a front all too forgotten - its just that is could have been a bit better with another 50 to 100 pages and maps.

The book is very detailed about the progress of the campaign. But there is a very serious mistake in the last page. Brooks writes that the town of Torbole was destroyed in a house to house battle. This is absolutely wrong, I lived practically next door and can assure you that Torbole survived unscathed. This throws into doubt all the rest of the book. Also there is no record among the population that any American soldiers were killed in tunnel # 5. But while dinamiting the road a contingent of German troops (actually they were from Bolzano)was decimated by a premature explosion and were laid to rest in a side chamber in one of the tunnels; the entrance was then bricked up.

This book is the most comprehensive operational account of the battle for Northern Italy that I've found. Much of the battle action is between the Arno and Po Rivers. On the German side is the 10th and 14th Armies defending the high ground against the Allies. The two main Allies but not the only Allies were the US 5th Army and the British 8th Army. The book covers the last eleven months of the war and while the fighting north of Rome wasn't quite as bad as Salerno, Anzio, Rapido River, Cassino and the rest of the Gustav Line, it was still a slow, costly struggle.

Though the main theme is operational, its not a really dry affair for the author weaves, though not deeply, the lives of many soldiers, officers and civilians into his story. The author who was a veteran wrote this book as a tribute to the fallen, trying to describe the ordeal the ground troops endured in this costly battle and does an admirable job of it. While there is some mention of Operations Overlord and Dragoon which stole the thunder from the Italian Front and some mention of the political and command decisions, its secondary.

There are 29 photos and 5 maps. The first map is of the Mediterranean with Italy in the center. The next map drills down to just the northern half of Italy, from Rome to the border. The next three maps cover the fighting between Florence and Bologna. The maps were OK but there was room for improvement. There should also have been more maps depicting the individual axes of advance instead of showing the entire width of Italy. There is an impressive Bibliography if further reading is desired and a useful Index.

The author does a good job, though perhaps with less flair of Atkinson, of providing comprehensive battle coverage for both sides while weaving many anecdotal Allied experiences into the story. This book begins where many books end with the liberation of Rome and continues to the end of the war and as such would make a fine supplement to your library.

A very good work of history research. Off course as couldn't be different it is his point of view but the Author seems tried didn't let scape any important detail on this matter. No book can be complete when we talk about complex subjects like history but there are ones essentials and this certainly are one of them if you want to know and/or study more deeply about Italy Campaign after June, 1944 - one commonly neglected/forgotten aspect of the history of World War II.