Rough Road to Rome: A Foot-soldier in Sicily and Italy, 1943-44 - Hardcover

Cole, Sir David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0718303091 ISBN 13: 9780718303099

Publisher: William Kimber & Co Ltd, 1983

Synopsis

A question that puzzled some Italians when the Allies entered Rome in June 1944 was why it had taken the liberating armies nearly a year to get there after the invasion of Sicily in July 1943.

In this vivid and gripping memoir, written by an infantryman, a Battalion Signals Officer in the Inniskillings, the reasons become chillingly plain. The Eighth Army were fighting inch by painful inch not only the Germans, who were desperate to retain their hold on Italy after the surrender, but a hostile mountainous terrain, and that enemy which no shelling could overcome — General Winter, as they came to a halt against the German Gustav Line. The New Year brought further Allied attacks but little progress — the fierce fighting of the Garigliano crossing and round Cassino, and the bloody setback of the Anzio strategy.

Through the author's vividly descriptive prose we live with him the infantryman's life, side by side with death and combating cold, hunger and fatigue, sharing his worm's eye view of this historic and bitter campaign.

Edition details

• Publisher: William Kimber & Co Ltd
• Publication date: 1983
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0718303091
• ISBN 13: 9780718303099
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208