Salerno to the Gustav Line 1943–1944 (Paperback)
Rare Photographs from Wartime Archives
WWII Photo Books Colour Books WWII Photographic Books
Imprint: Pen & Sword Military
Series: Images of War
Pages: 208
ISBN: 9781526707345
Published: 5th February 2018
This Week's Best Sellers Rank: #18
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Salerno to the Gustav Line 1943–1944 Kindle (83.2 MB) Add to Basket | £9.59 |
Salerno to the Gustav Line 1943–1944 ePub (37.9 MB) Add to Basket | £9.59 |
In September 1943, shortly after the conquest of Sicily, the Allied armies made amphibious assaults on the Italian Mainland at Calabria, Taranto and along the Gulf of Salerno beaches. The Italian Government quickly capitulated but the Germans fought on. Although the British XIII Corps and 1st Airborne’s attacks were largely uncontested in Calabria and Taranto, the Allied Fifth Army’s beachheads at Salerno underwent savage Nazi counterattacks.
After Salerno, the Allied Fifth and Eighth Armies continued their advance north initially to the ports of Naples and Bari before struggling through Italian massifs, held up by a determined enemy and unfavourable ground and weather. In January 1944, the Fifth Army’s X, II and French Expeditionary Corps attacked across the Garigliano and Rapido Rivers with the aim of breaking through the Gustav Line fortifications. The Nazi defence at the town of Cassino just succeeded in halting the two-week Allied attack during First Battle of Cassino and the Gustav Line was to be the scene of fierce fighting for months.
A good addition to the Images of War series, and one that will be interesting for any whose family members also took part in the war in Italy.
Military Model Scene, Robin Buckland
Read the complete review here.
About Jon Diamond
Jon Diamond MD is a kidney specialist in the UK with a deep interest in the Second World War. He is a keen collector of photographs. His Stilwell and the Chindits and War in the South Pacific are published by Pen and Sword in their Images of War series.