Good account, but very U.S.-centric

I jumped straight to this book after listening to the first book in this author’s WWII “Liberation Trilogy,” An Army at Dawn. While I can’t say that I was disappointed, I did find that this book was less detailed than the first on many aspects of the Sicilian and Italian mainland campaigns.

Some specific confrontations are very thoroughly covered, including Operation Husky (the invasion of Sicily) and Operation Shingle (the amphibious attack at Anzio), as well as the lead-up to the battle for Cassino. But other aspects of the campaign are given relatively short shrift, especially if American troops weren’t involved.

As a Canadian I found this particularly galling, as my country’s involvement in the Sicilian and Italian mainland battles was considerable, but merited no more than cursory mention. For instance , the hard-fought Canadian victories at the Moro River and Ortona on the Adriatic coast, which unhinged the eastern end of the German “Gustav Line,” could easily have occupied an entire chapter unto themselves. As it is, they are barely mentioned in passing.

That criticism aside, this is nonetheless a worthy successor to An Army at Dawn, and I’m looking forward to listening to the third volume, The Guns at Last Light, which covers the liberation of Western Europe.

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