Ebook: Monte Cassino: the hardest-fought battle of World War II

Introduction: The monastery and the Gustav Line -- pt. 1: Sicily to Cassino. The Casablanca conference and the invasion of Sicily ; The invasion of Italy ; The Gustav Line ; Into the Gustav Line -- pt. 2: The first battle. British X Corps on the Garigliano : the left hook ; Bloody River ; Anzio and Cassino ; The Cassino Massif -- pt. 3: The second battle. The destruction of the monastery ; Snakeshead Ridge ; Lull at Cassino, counterattack at Anzio -- pt. 4: The third battle. The battle for Cassino town ; Castle Hill ; The green devils of Cassino -- pt. 5: The fourth battle. Deception ; Break-in ; Amazon Bridge ; The monastery -- Postscript: Surviving the peace -- Appendix: Typical British infantry battalion, 1943-44 -- Orders of battle.;This book is a story of the horrors of war seen from the perspective of the soldiers on the battlefield. Before D-Day there was Monte Cassino, the desperate six-month struggle in the mountains of central Italy that left more than 350,000 men dead or wounded. Hitler had declared that the Allied drive toward Rome must be stopped at all costs, and German commander Kesselring chose the fortresslike monastery of Monte Cassino as the centerpiece of the defensive line. With months to prepare, Kesselring took advantage of the treacherous terrain to establish a virtually impregnable position. As the Allied forces, which included Americans, British, Canadians, Indians, South Africans, Tunisians, Algerians, Moroccans, Senegalese, Brazilians, and royalist Italians, pushed their way forward, the coldest, rainiest winter in Italian history rendered air and armor power useless and turned the landscape into a hellish killing ground.--From publisher description.