Monte Cassino: The Hardest-Fought Battle of World War II

Monte Cassino: The Hardest-Fought Battle of World War II
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The Real Deal

The Heroism at Monte Cassino

Incredibly Informative

An exceptional history of WWIIs forgotten campaign

The Rest of The Story

Monte Cassino: The Hardest-Fought Battle of World War II
Matthew Parker
Manufacturer: Doubleday
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Personal Narratives | World War II | Military | History | Subjects | Books
General | Italy | Europe | History | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0385509855
Release Date: 2004-06-01

Book Description

A gripping chronicle of the greatest and most terrible confrontation between Allied forces and the Nazi army, based on groundbreaking archival research and the compelling first-person accounts of four hundred survivors on both sides of the conflict.

Before D-Day there was Monte Cassino, the desperate six-month struggle in the mountains of central Italy that left more than 350,000 men dead or wounded. Hitler had declared that the Allied drive toward Rome must be stopped at all costs, and in the winter of 1943–44 the German commander Kesselring chose the fortress-like monastery of Monte Cassino as the centerpiece of the Gustav Line, one of the most impressive feats of defensive engineering ever conceived. With months to prepare his position, Kesselring took advantage of the treacherous terrain to establish a virtually impregnable position. As the Allied forces?which included Americans, British, Canadians, Indians, South Africans, Tunisians, Algerians, Moroccans, Senegalese, Brazilians, and royalist Italians?pushed their way forward, the coldest, rainiest winter in Italian history rendered air and armor power useless, and turned the landscape into a hellish killing ground.

The Battle of Monte Cassino is a story of the horrors of war seen from the perspective of the soldiers on the battlefield. Through interviews with hundreds of survivors, as well as wartime letters and diaries, Matthew Parker vividly captures the savagery of conflicts fought with grenades, bayonets, and bare hands. His extensive research in the military archives of the participating nations brings to light how incessant disagreements and backbiting at the Allied command level contributed to the carnage and confusion. The destruction of the fourteenth-century monastery itself becomes a powerful symbol of the toll war takes on history and culture. Monte Cassino was one of the most sacred sites in Christendom and the home to valuable religious artifacts, artworks, and manuscripts. In massive Allied bombings, the building and many of its irreplaceable treasures were reduced to rubble.

The first book in twenty years about Monte Cassino, this monumental work of history conveys the human face of war with authoritative power and unforgettable emotional resonance.

Customer Reviews:

The Real Deal.......2007-05-05

Authors of books on military campaigns face a difficult task. They need to describe actions taken by two opponents on multiple fronts at the same time at strategic and tactical levels. Matthew Parker manages to do this well AND add often heartwrenching personal views of both sides of the battle gleaned from diaries, letters and interviews. And it is the personal accounts that raise this book above the average. This is not a description of the heroic Allies vanquishing the evil Nazis. Parker presents the grotesque realities and complexities of war. Not a book for the first time 'military' reader, better referencing of the otherwise clear maps and a better glimpse of the campaign from General Clark's and Alexander's perspectives (who are both criticized) would be improvements. But these are minor items against an otherwise fine work.

The Heroism at Monte Cassino.......2006-08-30

For some odd reason, Allied strategists considered Italy the "soft underbelly" of German-ruled Europe. It proved virtually the opposite. Parker points out that the very geography of Italy nullified the advantages that the Allies had acquired over the Germans by 1944. Furthermore, German forces dug in and stiffened their resistance in Italy. Every Allied attack on Monte Cassino was beaten back with heavy losses. Allied bombing and shelling of this German fortification seemed to have little effect--at least at first.

Matthew Parker presents a great deal of detail on the Polish Corps, much more than usually seen in non-Polish publications. As a Polish-American whose biological father fought at Monte Cassino, I have a special interest in this battle. There were about 50,000 soldiers in the Polish Corps, and 80% of them had recently been imprisoned in the Soviet Union. They were led by General Wladyslaw Anders, who himself had recently spent time in Soviet prisons.

Having analyzed the failure of previous attempts to take this objective, General Wladyslaw Anders decided on a strategy of attacking all German positions simultaneously. This would keep the Germans from temporarily retreating from one hideout to another and then freely coming back to counterattack the advancing Allies. The Poles intercepted a German order to retreat from Monte Cassino. This gave the Polish Corps a chance to trap the Germans before and during their retreat. Anders' strategy worked. The fighting was exceptionally fierce, and the Poles took Monte Cassino. The stench of the dead was everywhere.

Matthew Parker describes the red poppy flowers growing on the hillsides that surround Monte Cassino. Unfortunately, he fails to mention the fact that these very flowers inspired a military song: "Red Poppies at Monte Cassino" by Ref Ren. The song describes Polish soldiers treading and dying on these poppies "because anger was greater than fear of death". The poppies imbibed Polish blood instead of dew. In time, the flowers of these poppies would be redder than ever because of their diet of Polish blood.

When the Poles took Monte Cassino, the captured Germans became white with fear once they saw the Polish eagle insignia on the uniforms. In March 1983, a West German source published an article that accused the Poles of killing wounded Germans following the capture of Monte Cassino. Robert Frettlohr, one of the wounded German veterans captured by the Poles, spoke up. He forcefully repudiated the scurrilous accusation of Polish soldiers killing wounded Germans. He then got acquainted with Kazimierz Gurbiel, one of the Polish soldiers who had captured Frettlohr decades earlier. A friendship developed. Both former enemies were reunited at Monte Cassino in 1989, 45 years after their first meeting. Frettlohr regretted the war, pointing to its senselessness. He urged that Germans and Poles never again shoot at each other. For his part, Kazimierz Gurbiel, who had been severely wounded in a later battle, stated that he could not hate Germans.

General Leese realized that the Poles' capture of Monte Cassino soundly refuted the Soviet propaganda accusation of non-Communist Poles being unwilling to fight the Germans. Unfortunately, in this respect, it made no difference. Poland had already been sold out, by the British and Americans, in the events leading up to and including Teheran and, later, Yalta. In fact, Parker refers to the giveaway of eastern Poland to the Soviet Union at Teheran. General Wladyslaw Anders not only dared not return to his native Poland, but was constantly and profusely vilified by the Soviet stooges installed over "liberated" Poland. He died in 1970, in exile, and was buried at the Polish military cemetery at Monte Cassino, the final resting place of the Poles who fell in combat against the Germans in that dramatic battle.

Incredibly Informative .......2006-01-12

Having visited Salerno this past summer, I was disappointed to discover very little local information on the war and the Allied invasion there. Since I was staying with my wife's family, I asked them to recount their memories, which included climbing high on the coastal mountains as children and watching the troops come ashore. In their recollections they believed the invasion was virtually casualty-free for all. This surprised me, and I began searching for more information back here in the States.

Not only does Matthew Parker's book recount the battles of Monte Cassino, but it also provides significant background information on the events and decisions leading up to the Mediterranean invasions, including the one at Salerno, which was not casualty-free.

I read Parker's book while on Christmas holiday in Genova, Italy (2005), but unfortunately did not make it to Monte Cassino itself for a visit. Next time. Parker's book was difficult to put down and I've already recommended it to others.

I look forward to reading more from this well-researched historian. His work has brought much "readable" attention to aspects of WWII that are often overlooked. This is not a typical history book. It is accessible, well-written, and a good read. His reliance on eye-witness accounts and testimony is excellent. I hope he plans to write others books about WWII topics often overlooked, like the involvement of Polish troops throughout various theatres, like the Battle for Monte Ormel in the Falaise Pocket for instance, a valley of brutal fighting reminiscent of the horrors depicted at Monte Cassino.

An exceptional history of WWIIs forgotten campaign.......2005-12-05

Monte Cassino is one of those rare stories of war that reaches into your heart and mind, and somehow is able to stir both beyond the actual weight of the words printed between the covers. There is something intangeable about the way this story siezes the reader. Mathew Parker captures the events in a very graphic, no-nonsense manner and yet somehow manages to eloquently convey the experiences of soldier in the field during the Cassino battles. The feelings of terror, anger, bitterness, loneliness, acceptance of ones fate as well as the hope of somehow making it back home in one piece are masterfully described to the reader.

The book is divided into sections which describe both the preliminary battles in the Mediterranean theater which led to it and the horrific battle of attrition in central Italy itelf. Each battle is clearly laid out by the planning involved and how it evolved as well as it's results. Thus the struggle for Monte Cassino is not described as a single long assault but instead as a series of attacks, counterattacks and pauses to refit and rest. Mr. Parker also spends a good deal of space explaining the moral and economic cost of the war on civilians around Monte Cassino and in Italy, as well as the interactions between the various hostile nationalities and the civilians. Throughout the book Mr. Parker has done a credit to historians of this little studied theater of operations. He has written a book which possesses a balance of both the operational goals and strategy in Italy and the human cost of this strategy. He does this through a large number of personal accounts of the war by the average soldeir and civilian in the Italian theater.

As a matter of fact, the author skillfully uses the larger operational plans to directly feed into the personal accounts of the fight for Monte Cassino. Several examples of this are the patched together and rushed nature of the battles to either take or outflank the town of Cassino and the monastery above it. He puts the reader into the field with the infantryman who is faced with the consequences of one ill-planned and little-prepared-for battle after another. The reader is placed in the middle of infantry assaults devastated becuase of a lack of, or even misdirrected artillery, tank attacks not supported by infantry due to a lack of coordination, as well as amongst civillians caught in the cross-fire of these engagements. Mr. Parker clearly details the lack of understanding of the terrain by the commanding generals and how this led to the hopelessness of the early allied assaults. Decision after decision is poorly carried out or, even worse, ineptly conceived. The author even argues quite effectively that the architect of the campaign, General Mark Clark, needlessly sacrificed many soldeirs lives in his quest for respect and glory.

In the long run, the distinguishing characteristic of this history of one of the most bloody and, oddly enough, least known battles of the second world war, is it's emphasis on the cost in human terms. It is clear that to the author, when weighed against the terrible loss of life by both sides in fight to control this piece of ground, the operational and strategic goals of Churchill and the generals involved made little or no sense. Time and again the personal accounts collected here support this. With this book Mr. Parker has made an invaluable contribution to the understanding of what the soldiers of every nationality went through in that terrible battlefield in Italy.

The Rest of The Story.......2005-09-13

An interesting, informative account of that controversial battle. Mr. Parker gives an unbiased and very detailed description of the battle based upon the accounts of those "front line" troops that were there..Allies, German and Italian. It's a book that once begun you won't be able to put down.

Book Description

The Spice Route is one of history's greatest anomalies: shrouded in mystery, it existed long before anyone knew of its extent or configuration. Spices came from lands unseen, possibly uninhabitable, and almost by definition unattainable; that was what made them so desirable. Yet more livelihoods depended on this pungent traffic, more nations participated in it, more wars were fought for it, and more discoveries resulted from it than from any other global exchange. Epic in scope, marvelously detailed, laced with drama, The Spice Route spans three millennia and circles the world to chronicle the history of the spice trade. With the aid of ancient geographies, travelers' accounts, mariners' handbooks, and ships' logs, John Keay tells of ancient Egyptians who pioneered maritime trade to fetch the incense of Arabia, Graeco-Roman navigators who found their way to India for pepper and ginger, Columbus who sailed west for spices, de Gama, who sailed east for them, and Magellan, who sailed across the Pacific on the exact same quest. A veritable spice race evolved as the west vied for control of the spice-producing islands, stripping them of their innocence and the spice trade of its mystique. This enthralling saga, progressing from the voyages of the ancients to the blue-water trade that came to prevail by the seventeenth century, transports us from the dawn of history to the ends of the earth.

Customer Reviews:

So dissapointed.......2007-02-28

I was very excited when this book came out, having an interest in the history of the spice trade. Unfortuneately it is poorly written and organized, reading more like a doctoral dissertation than a book. The author might have followed a specific route. or a specific plant, or a historical timeline, but as far as I can tell it is just a mishmash of statements.
It would be much improved by a few maps - unless you know in your head most water routes and islands of the world.
His facts are also somewhat loose - he describes cubeb as a type of pepper - yes it is in the same genus and has a peppery taste, but so are such disparate plants as kava and betel.
And most importantly the love is missing. This doesn't read as a story by a person impassioned by places or plants or history - just an assortment of facts he found. He repeatedly talks about how spices are just for the rich to show off how rich they are - I would say a spice has much more intrinsic value, both as medicine, hygiene and food, than diamonds or other objects of value only for their scarcity.

Pepper, Cloves and other Obsessions.......2005-10-23

For over two millennium the Western world was obsessed with the spice products of the far east - specifically India, Sri Lanka and the islands of the Malaysian and Indonesian Archipelagos. Obsessed to the point that from the time of the Roman empire onwards Europe ran a constant trade deficit with these countries and with the Arab cultures who for much of the time acted as middlemen. This fine book from John Keay provides a history of this trade from the return of Alexander's soldiers from India bringing with them a taste for spices through to the largely unknown trade of Roman and Hellenistic sailors plying the route from the Red Sea to India and onto the Arabs and finally the Europeans sailing around Africa. In documenting this trade Keay's has provided the reader with a concise but encompassing history of a trade which shaped the world as we now know it.

But equally importantly this book invokes the romance inherent with this subject, leaving the reader to dreaming of sailing to places such as the Zanzibar, Malabar and Coromandel Coasts to trade for spices at the height of trade.

After completing this book, I would recommend an earlier book by John Keay, "The Honourable Company", which is a history of the British East Indian Company and provides more details on the European part of the trade.

Silk, Scents, And Spice: Retracing the World's Great Trade Routes,the Silk Road, the Spice Route, the Incense Trail

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Silk, Scents, And Spice: Retracing the World's Great Trade Routes,the Silk Road, the Spice Route, the Incense Trail
John Lawton
Manufacturer: Economica
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Economic History | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

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The Spice Route: A History (California Studies in Food and Culture)
The Scents of Eden: A History of the Spice Trade
The Silk Road: Trade, Travel, War And Faith
Spice: The History of a Temptation
The Silk Road: Two Thousand Years in the Heart of Asia

ASIN: 2717849513

Book Description

From the earliest days of mankind, the movement of peoples and intercultural exchanges have played a crucial role in the development of civilization. Three legendary routes have been particularly influential: the Silk Road, the Spice Route, and the Incense Trail. Established to transport exotic merchandise, they also carried new ideas, technologies, and religions vast distances. As pathways of conquering armies and armadas, they helped shape the history of the world.

In Silk, Scents, and Spice, adventurer John Lawton retraces the world's greatest trade routes. Through journeys across the steppes, deserts, mountains, and oceans of Asia, Europe, and the Far East, his book recalls the glorious past of these storied passages, documenting the legacy of art, architecture, and religion they left behind.

The Incense Trail linked the aromatic growing regions of Arabia with the incense-craving empires of antiquity, including Egypt, Babylon, and Rome. The Silk Road stretched some 7,500 miles across the mountains, deserts, and steppes of Central Asia, joining the markets of China with those of Europe and the Middle East. Along it two of the world's major religions—Buddhism and Islam—were spread, and basic technologies including printing and papermaking were transferred. The Spice Route, a network of sea lanes that joined Europe, India, and the Orient, created intense international rivalries over the lucrative trade of Southeast Asian spices. The search for their source sent Columbus across the Atlantic and Magellan around the globe.

Book Description

From the Mediterranean to the China Sea, the Silk Routes stretched for over 8000 kilometres through the heart of Asia.

They crossed some of the most dangerous and spectacular terrain on Earth--the Pamir Mountains, called "the Roof of the World," the Hind Kush and the notorious Taklamakan desert, whose shifting sands have been known to swallow up great cities. But for the past two thousand years, people have been tempted to travel these routes--to look for the trade or treasure or just to satisfy their curiosity.

Illustrated with dozens of splendid historic visuals, Exploration by Land, tells of the adventures these travellers had, the finds and contacts they made, exploring the Silk Routes.

Exploration by Sea (Silk and Spice Routes)

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Exploration by Sea (Silk and Spice Routes)
Unesco
Manufacturer: UNESCO
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 923102762X

Book Description

The Gross Motor Function Measure (GMFM) is the first evaluative measure of motor function designed for quantifying change in the gross motor abilities of children with cerebral palsy. The new version (GMFM-66) of this widely used and now standard outcome assessment tool is completely revised, largely new, and has been improved through Rasch analysis. GMFM-66 transforms the standard GMFM into an interval measure; provides an 'item map' of the relative difficulty among items; and includes a user-friendly, computer-assisted software program to aid in scoring and interpretation of GMFM data. This is included, with a printed scoresheet, on a CD-ROM enclosed in the book.

Customer Reviews:

not good.......2007-01-31

I never received this book, the book got lost at the post office!!!!

Tool assesses motor control in cerebral palsy. (Major Advance).(Gross Motor Function Measure)(Brief Article) : An article from: Pediatric News

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Tool assesses motor control in cerebral palsy. (Major Advance).(Gross Motor Function Measure)(Brief Article) : An article from: Pediatric News
Kerri Wachter
Manufacturer: International Medical News Group
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B0009FWLZI
Release Date: 2005-06-01

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Pediatric News, published by International Medical News Group on March 1, 2003. The length of the article is 3890 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Tool assesses motor control in cerebral palsy. (Major Advance).(Gross Motor Function Measure)(Brief Article)
Author: Kerri Wachter
Publication: Pediatric News (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 1, 2003
Publisher: International Medical News Group
Volume: 37 Issue: 3 Page: 58(1)

Article Type: Brief Article

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

The first edition of this book provided an account of the restricted Burnside problem making extensive use of Lie ring techniques to provide a uniform treatment of the field. It also included Kostrikin's theorem for groups of prime exponent. The second edition, as well as providing general updating, contains a new chapter on E.I. Zelmanov's highly acclaimed and recent solution to the Restricted Burnside Problem for arbitrary prime-power exponent. This material is currently only available in papers in Russian journals. This proof of Zelmanov's theorem given in the new edition is self contained, and (unlike Zelmanov's original proof) does not rely on the theory of Jordan algebras.

The Restricted Burnside Problem (London Mathematical Society Monographs)

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The Restricted Burnside Problem (London Mathematical Society Monographs)
Michael Vaughan-Lee
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press(UK)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OLIHE6

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