The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy 1943-1944 (Book Two of the Liberation Trilogy by Rick Atkinson) - Book review
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Pros:Strong narrative, a fine tribute to a theater overshadowed by the Normandy invasion
Cons:A bit mawkish at times
The Bottom Line:The second entry of The Liberation Trilogy has its literary flaws at times, but it really gives readers a good look at the war in Sicily and Italy.
When most people who aren't into military history much or have learned just the basics about World War II in high school history classes think about the war, more likely than not they'll recall the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the D-Day landings on northern France, or the Battle of the Bulge.
If they are serious war movie buffs, they might even mention the Battle of the Atlantic (via such films as The Enemy Below, Das Boot, or U-571), the Battle of Britain, or the strategic bombing offensive against Germany.
If the air war over Gernany, the Battle of the Atlantic and the campaign to liberate Northwest Europe have overshadowed the long, bloody, and often frustrating campaign in Italy, it's probably because it morphed from being a crucial theater of operations to a somewhat orphaned sideshow long before it ended in the spring of 1945.
In The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944, Rick Atkinson explores the first 10 months of the Western Allies' struggle to extricate Italy from the Axis camp and perhaps tie down German units that could either be used by Adolf Hitler on the Eastern Front or to oppose the cross-Channel attack on northern France, which was tentatively scheduled for May of 1944.
Like the North African campaign of November 1942-May 1943 (and chronicled by Atkinson in An Army at Dawn), the invasions of Sicily (Operation HUSKY), the "toe of Italy" (BAYTOWN), and Salerno (AVALANCHE) were prompted by a need to close a rift between American planners who wanted to invade France as soon as possible and their British counterparts, who preferred their traditional naval-based "peripheral strategy" to divert German forces to the outer rim of Festung Europa and avoid the mass slaughter they remembered from World War I.
The chief proponent of an Anglo-American campaign in the Mediterranean was, of course, Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill, whose charm campaign to sway President Franklin D. Rooosevelt and hands-on management of the British war effort is brilliantly described by Atkinson. It was Churchill who, when looking at a map of Nazi-controlled Europe, described Italy and Southern France as "the soft underbelly of the Axis."
But if Churchill comes across as the architect of the long, tedious, and bloody struggle up the boot of Italy, FDR emerges as the "decision-maker" who, while understanding the concerns of such luminaries as Gen. George C. Marshall and Adm. Ernest J. King (who, before FDR made his final choice to prosecute the Mediterranean campaign, said he wanted to shift the Navy's full effort to the Pacific), was loath to keeping American forces in the European Theater idle for a year or so during the buildup to Operation OVERLORD, the invasion of France.
The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 is the second part of Atkinson's The Liberation Trilogy, which will culminate in a few years with a third volume about the campaigns in Northwest Europe. Many of the historical figures introduced in 2002's An Army at Dawn reappear in this book, ranging from the well-known (Eisenhower, Bradley, Patton, Montgomery) to the somewhat more obscure commanders (Clark, Leese, and Alexander), and quite a few will be featured in Book Three because they transfer to Britain from the Med in mid-campaign to take part in OVERLORD.
As in all the books I've read by Atkinson, there is a fine balance of the Big Picture of the war and the small, telling personal detail. Like he does in Crusade: The Untold Story of the Persian Gulf War and An Army at Dawn, the author gives the reader a mix of personality profiles of not only the well-known commanders on both sides but also of field-grade officers such as Lt. Col. John J. Toffey, Jr., a product of a traditional Army family who had led his battalion from North Africa almost all the way to Rome, and of the well-known correspondent Ernie Pyle, who drank way too much and doubted his writing talent even while producing perhaps the best known column about the war in Italy. (It was Pyle who wryly noted that the "soft underbelly" had turned out to be a "tough old gut.")
Atkinson also examines the shortcomings, blunders, and strategic/tactical incompetence that hampered the Allied efforts in Italy. There's an account, for instance, of a German air raid on Bari harbor that took place on December 2, 1943. Not only was it, in Atkinson's words, "the costliest sneak attack since Pearl Harbor," but it saw one of the war's biggest cover-ups when bombs hit a cargo ship which carried tons of mustard gas shells. The Allies had shipped them to Italy - in secret - just in case the Germans used chemical weapons on the peninsula, but the enemy never did, so in order to keep a lid on the resulting casualties, the incident was withheld from the press.
In addition, there are very detailed glimpses at the battles of Salerno, the Rapido and Volturno river crossings, the fight for San Pietro Infine, the even more controversial fiascos of Anzio and Monte Cassino, and, finally, the much-debated "race for Rome," which remains very controversial among historians and armchair generals even in the first decade of the 21st Century.
While not perfect (Atkinson sometimes gets mawkish and a bit too poetic, especially when he follows the story arc of a few lower-ranked officers), The Day of Battle is still one of the best in-depth looks at the war in Sicily and Italy that I've read, and he is at his best when he takes readers into such settings as the refit Queen Mary upon her arrival in New York harbor, carrying not only several thousand German POWs bound for the American West, but also Churchill and his retinue of commanders for a conference in Washington. When he does this, Atkinson gives us a "fly on the wall" perspective, whether it's in a conference room full of top brass trying to sway their civilian leaders to choose a particular strategy or in a confined beachhead surrounded by enemy forces, with GIs and Tommies fighting and dying in a series of battles against a tough and determined German army.
If they are serious war movie buffs, they might even mention the Battle of the Atlantic (via such films as The Enemy Below, Das Boot, or U-571), the Battle of Britain, or the strategic bombing offensive against Germany.
If the air war over Gernany, the Battle of the Atlantic and the campaign to liberate Northwest Europe have overshadowed the long, bloody, and often frustrating campaign in Italy, it's probably because it morphed from being a crucial theater of operations to a somewhat orphaned sideshow long before it ended in the spring of 1945.
In The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944, Rick Atkinson explores the first 10 months of the Western Allies' struggle to extricate Italy from the Axis camp and perhaps tie down German units that could either be used by Adolf Hitler on the Eastern Front or to oppose the cross-Channel attack on northern France, which was tentatively scheduled for May of 1944.
Like the North African campaign of November 1942-May 1943 (and chronicled by Atkinson in An Army at Dawn), the invasions of Sicily (Operation HUSKY), the "toe of Italy" (BAYTOWN), and Salerno (AVALANCHE) were prompted by a need to close a rift between American planners who wanted to invade France as soon as possible and their British counterparts, who preferred their traditional naval-based "peripheral strategy" to divert German forces to the outer rim of Festung Europa and avoid the mass slaughter they remembered from World War I.
The chief proponent of an Anglo-American campaign in the Mediterranean was, of course, Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill, whose charm campaign to sway President Franklin D. Rooosevelt and hands-on management of the British war effort is brilliantly described by Atkinson. It was Churchill who, when looking at a map of Nazi-controlled Europe, described Italy and Southern France as "the soft underbelly of the Axis."
But if Churchill comes across as the architect of the long, tedious, and bloody struggle up the boot of Italy, FDR emerges as the "decision-maker" who, while understanding the concerns of such luminaries as Gen. George C. Marshall and Adm. Ernest J. King (who, before FDR made his final choice to prosecute the Mediterranean campaign, said he wanted to shift the Navy's full effort to the Pacific), was loath to keeping American forces in the European Theater idle for a year or so during the buildup to Operation OVERLORD, the invasion of France.
The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 is the second part of Atkinson's The Liberation Trilogy, which will culminate in a few years with a third volume about the campaigns in Northwest Europe. Many of the historical figures introduced in 2002's An Army at Dawn reappear in this book, ranging from the well-known (Eisenhower, Bradley, Patton, Montgomery) to the somewhat more obscure commanders (Clark, Leese, and Alexander), and quite a few will be featured in Book Three because they transfer to Britain from the Med in mid-campaign to take part in OVERLORD.
As in all the books I've read by Atkinson, there is a fine balance of the Big Picture of the war and the small, telling personal detail. Like he does in Crusade: The Untold Story of the Persian Gulf War and An Army at Dawn, the author gives the reader a mix of personality profiles of not only the well-known commanders on both sides but also of field-grade officers such as Lt. Col. John J. Toffey, Jr., a product of a traditional Army family who had led his battalion from North Africa almost all the way to Rome, and of the well-known correspondent Ernie Pyle, who drank way too much and doubted his writing talent even while producing perhaps the best known column about the war in Italy. (It was Pyle who wryly noted that the "soft underbelly" had turned out to be a "tough old gut.")
Atkinson also examines the shortcomings, blunders, and strategic/tactical incompetence that hampered the Allied efforts in Italy. There's an account, for instance, of a German air raid on Bari harbor that took place on December 2, 1943. Not only was it, in Atkinson's words, "the costliest sneak attack since Pearl Harbor," but it saw one of the war's biggest cover-ups when bombs hit a cargo ship which carried tons of mustard gas shells. The Allies had shipped them to Italy - in secret - just in case the Germans used chemical weapons on the peninsula, but the enemy never did, so in order to keep a lid on the resulting casualties, the incident was withheld from the press.
In addition, there are very detailed glimpses at the battles of Salerno, the Rapido and Volturno river crossings, the fight for San Pietro Infine, the even more controversial fiascos of Anzio and Monte Cassino, and, finally, the much-debated "race for Rome," which remains very controversial among historians and armchair generals even in the first decade of the 21st Century.
While not perfect (Atkinson sometimes gets mawkish and a bit too poetic, especially when he follows the story arc of a few lower-ranked officers), The Day of Battle is still one of the best in-depth looks at the war in Sicily and Italy that I've read, and he is at his best when he takes readers into such settings as the refit Queen Mary upon her arrival in New York harbor, carrying not only several thousand German POWs bound for the American West, but also Churchill and his retinue of commanders for a conference in Washington. When he does this, Atkinson gives us a "fly on the wall" perspective, whether it's in a conference room full of top brass trying to sway their civilian leaders to choose a particular strategy or in a confined beachhead surrounded by enemy forces, with GIs and Tommies fighting and dying in a series of battles against a tough and determined German army.
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| Photo courtesy of the U.S. Army Signal Corps |
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