ANZIO 1944 - An Unexpected Fury by Verney, Peter

London B.T. Batsford 1978., UK first edition, hard bound in dust jacket, 6 x 9, FINE/FINE CONDITION, ( dj price clipped)265 pages, illus., maps, Allied order of battle, index.-------------------------------------------Anzio – the name recalls to veterans of that campaign in the Italian spring of 1944 memories of death in appalling conditions of mud and cold and of a battle so nearly lost. What started as a bold adventure – an amphibious landing behind the German lines to sever their communications and perhaps take Rome – ended in a contest as bitter and sustained as any in the Second World War.For Anzio was a near disaster; how near has not previously been told in such detail. In this balanced account, drawing on a wide range of unpublished sources, including much German material as. well as contemporary diaries and personal reminiscences, the author creates a picture of a battle which echoed Flanders as did no other campaign in World War II. As Peter Verney says in his introduction: 'Anzio is a place still vibrant with memories – some of these memories I have sought to capture in this book.'--------------------------------------------------------------------The battle for the beachhead of Anzio was a soldier's battle, fought against a stubborn, courageous and skilfully-handled enemy, and creating a cameraderie between British and American servicemen which never again reached the same pitch in the Second World War. This is the story of those men, told in vivid detail and with terrible immediacy.The author asks why the British and American forces were there at all. Was Anzio a mistake, a gamble which could never succeed? Or was it the greatest missed opportunity Of the war, as some think? Could the unfortunate Major-General Lucas, on whom odium has been heaped since 1944, have acted differently? Or was Anzio fully justified in the broader context of the European war? These are some of the questions which still hang over the battle described by the Germans as the Allies "Epic of Bravery'.