A Hard Way to Make a War: The Allied Campaign in Italy in the Second World War (Model Shipwright)

This is one of the finest explanations of a combined forces 20th-century battle zone ever published. The Allies’ invasion of Sicily on June 10, 1943, and the landings on the Italian mainland in September, gave them their first toehold in Europe since 1941. But it was achieved at a cost. Ian Gooderson offers a considered analysis that places the entire campaign including the convoluted mixture of air, land, and naval actions in context. Most important, he shows how the commanders on the battlefield dealt with the military issues as they arose.