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Overview
A year before the much-heralded second front was opened at Normandy in 1944, the Allies waged a campaign in Sicily and Italy—an assault that was marked by argument and dissent from beginning to end, highlighting the fundamental differences in strategic thinking between the Americans and the British. Winston Churchill favored scrapping what would become the Normandy invasion entirely, focusing instead on the soft underbelly of Nazi Europe, but American planners summarily rejected any plan that relied solely on a southern option. This is the story of this backwater campaign, a series of battles skillfully staged by the Germans and so botched by the Allies that their victory was achieved only as a result of German exhaustion.
During the hard-fought campaign, the Americans persisted in their suspicion that the British were trying to undermine the effort. For example, the imbroglio over the Benedictine monastery of Monte Cassino and the ineptness of the British assault, led by a commander already discredited by his role in the fall of Crete, would spur the Americans to overreact and destroy the monastery by bombing. This created a major propaganda victory for the Germans. Such incidents convinced both Washington and London that they were working at cross-purposes. Hoyt contends that, as the British argued at the time, Allied efforts would have been better-spent concentrating on the Balkans. The Normandy campaign was expensive, unnecessary, and ultimately lengthened the war.
Synopsis
This is the story of the Backwater campaign, a series of battles skillfully staged by the Germans and so botched by the Allies that their victory was achieved only as a result of German exhaustion.
Booknews
This military history, written for a general audience, explores the conflicts between the British and American high commands during World War II over the conduct of the war on the European southern front. Time, argues the author, has proven the British right in their failed efforts to broaden the southern effort and "nibble away" and Hitler's forces. The American insistence on attacking the German forces head on through the Normandy operation prolonged the wars in Europe and the Pacific, he suggests. The conflict is especially evident in the conduct of the war in Italy, with the two allies viewing each other's motivations with suspicion and hostility. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)