By Mark Yost

The hard-fought campaign to retake Italy from the Germans during World War II has long been overshadowed by Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima and Normandy. James Holland changed that with three books on the bloody battles that took place in the hills and valleys south of Rome. Now comes the author's fourth book on the subject, "Cassino '44," focused mostly on the fighting in the region surrounding the abbey at Monte Cassino from January to May 1944.

Mr. Holland makes clear that the biggest challenge -- for both sides -- was the landscape. The narrow roads that cut into the mountain valleys "favored the defender," allowing the Germans to "watch the Allies coming."

During the fighting around nearby Monte Porchia in January 1944, Mr. Holland writes, one U.S. soldier "was horrified by the number of dead GIs littering the slopes." The Allies got their licks in, too. As the Germans attempted a retreat in mid-January, "American artillery had every crossing point zeroed" with devastating accuracy.

Allied high command was focused on the coming invasion of France. And so their troops in Italy had to make do with a limited number of ships, planes and assault craft. The Germans outnumbered them 23 divisions to 18.

Then there was the weather. "Freezing, with bitter winds whipping across the exposed slopes and dark," Mr. Holland writes of an assault on neighboring Monte Maio. "These were not sensible conditions in which to fight."

Four months of hard-fought gains led the Allies to the taking of Monte Cassino. "From a number of miles away it appeared to be long, low and white," the author tells us of the abbey. "Now, as the Allies drew closer, it appeared like an all-seeing eye, looking down upon them, watching their every move."

Gen. Mark Clark, the U.S. Fifth Army's commander, made sure his troops understood what they were required to do. They must be "so violent and terrible as to provide a permanent lesson of the folly of provoking a war with the United States," he wrote in an Army-wide message, fighting "with such relentless and smashing force as to implant for all time in the minds and memories of the German Army and people an indelible respect for our military ability and power."

The Allies did that, but at great cost. They ultimately captured Rome on June 4, 1944, two days before D-Day, but failed to trap the German Tenth Army. The war in Europe would drag on for another year.

--Mr. Yost writes about military history for the Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 15, 2024 10:41 ET (15:41 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.