Monte Cassino: Ten Armies in Hell

Peter Caddick-Adams has produced an outstanding account that adds much to the historiography of the Monte Cassino battles. One critical fact that distinguishes his coverage from previous authors is that it is abundantly clear that Caddick-Adams has walked the ground itself. Thus, he has an appreciation for the terrain over which the battle was fought.The book is organized into fifteen chapters, which include: 1 - Roads to Cassino (22 pages); 2 - An Italian Winter (20 pages); 3 - France Fights On (20 pages); 4 - A Very British Way of War (25 pages); 5 - Blood and Guts (30 pages); 6 - How to Destroy a Monastery (27 pages); 7 - The Empire Strikes Back (15 pages); 8 - Man Versus Nature (20 pages); Kiwis at Cassino (16 pages); 10 - Poland the Brave (15 pages); 11 - Winning Cassino - (11 pages); 12 - Trouble in the Liri (16 pages); 13 - Pursuit from Cassino (23 pages); 14 - Roads to Rome (14 pages); and 15 - Roads from Rome (13 pages).Many of the chapters (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10) focus on one of the national contingents (Italian, French, British, American, Indian, New Zealand and Polish respectively) that battled at Cassino while others (11 - 15) deal primary with tactical and operational level events.Of particular note is the author's lack of discernable national bias (which not all historians are able to suppress). He seems to understand the weaknesses and strengths of all of the combatants, explaining events with great detail and objectivity. In addition, he is able to accomplish this by using clear prose that reads well. Those unfamiliar with World War 2 and the Cassino battles in particular will enjoy his writing style, which is not encumbered by excessive use of specialized military terminology.End notes take up a hefty forty-nine pages, beginning on p. 297 and ending on p. 346. The 24 page bibliography includes sources from German, U.S., British, and Canadian archival collections. The author also makes very good use of student experience papers written soon after the war by American officers who fought at Cassino as well as several insightful research papers authored by recent attendees of the U.S. Army War College, U.S. Navy War College and U.S. Air Force School of Advanced Airpower Studies.There are rather fewer maps (only six) that I would personally prefer. They are located up front, between pages vii and xii, covering the entire theater, Allied and German defensive lines 1943 - 44; French, US and British attacks during the first battles of Cassino, the Cassino Town and Monastery, 1944; Liri Valley Offensive, 11 - 26 May 1944; and the Advance to Rome, 20 May - 5 June 1944.I highly recommend this book to all readers even remotely interested in the topic. I liked it so much that I bought a second copy for a friend!

Over the past two years I have read around a dozen good histories of the Italian campaign South of Rome. This is the best. The breath and scope is amazing. The footnotes themselves are as detailed and interesting as the narrative. I only wish the illustrations were as easy to access and come back to. Read it.

I am writing a movie script about the battles at Monte Cassino. This book provides a great explanation about why this campaign was so difficult for the Allies.

Be aware that the hardcover version is just a perfect bound paperback with a hardcover added. Use a bookmark to make it last.

I’ve visited the Monte Cassino battle field, spent a couple of days touring it, and this book took me right back there. One of the great battles of WWII. Check with Pino Valente of the Hotel Pace in Cassino Italy for a great experience in touring the battlefield, great hotel with a mini WWII museum. Highly recommended for a first class stay and tour, at reasonable prices. Reading this book before you go would be a plus.

The Cassino and Anzio campaigns were a prime example of what military folks call the seven Ps. "Piss Poor Prior Planning on the Part of Permanent Party Personnel". Operations were hurriedly thrown together with inadequate intelligence of the battlefield conditions, inadequate training and preparation of the troops assigned to the mission, and inadequate supply and logistics arrangements. The result was an unnecessary loss of lives and delay in the final outcome of the Italian campaign.The primary focus of the book was on the issues set forth above, as it should be if lessons are to learned. My only compl,aint with the book was a lack of maps. It often made it hard to visualize why and how events in one sector effected operationsin okther areas and which direction the troops were moving in.

I was briefly acquainted with a man, now deceased, who served in the U.S. Army at Monte Cassino. He had trouble saying anything about his experience, even briefly, without his voice cracking and tears beginning to form. After reading this book, I developed a more clear perspective about why the veteran of this campaign felt the way he did. What a debt we owe those veterans, and how little our generations have done to repay that debt given how we have bankrupted the country whose heritage they gave their all to support. For those who wish to learn about the battles of Monte Cassino, this book is well worth reading. At times the historical detail of this account can bog it down a bit, but overall it is very well written.

Very clear and exhaustively detailed study of the Cassino battle illustrating the grave difficulties faced by both sides in dealing with terrible weather and terrain. The rugged nature of the area provided the Germans with a defensive advantage.Good analysis of the arguments for and against bombing the abbey even though the upshot was to give the Germans a stronger position in the rubble then they had before. Also ,good character studies of the various commanders--especially Mark Clark, another prima donna and publicity hound. Overall the Italian campaign was not the walkover the allies hoped for--its main value was that it diverted substantial German forces from the forthcoming Normandy invasion.

I bought this book together with lloyd Clark's "Anzio" as my background reading for a recent trip to visit the battlefields of Anzio/Nettuno and Monte Cassino. As with all Caddick Adams' books the background research is spot-on and as well as giving a narrative history it gives insights into the psychology of the armies involved and the command-and-control/doctrinal differences between the forces. I finished it just before I visited the Monastery itself and what I had read really added to my understanding of what I was seeing "on the ground". The maps were excellent and I heartily recommend the book.

This is a very impressive piece of work and deserves to stand shoulder to shoulder with all the other books centered on this period of History. However, in my opinion the book felt slightly disjointed and lacked the immediacy of other works. Although there was much that I learned this would work best as a companion piece to Matthew Parker's book of the same name. Parker's book made a massive impact on me and the slaughter, sacrifice and combat just leapt of the page. So start with Parker and then try Adams, put the two together and you can't go far wrong!

An excellent account of the battle of Monte Casino in Italy during World War 2. It gives a good balanced view from all sides and the cost in lives it took to capture it. Overall 5 stars.

Read a few books on the subject and this was the best so far by a long way

A superb book. Amazing military and strategic detail and yet still manages to bring the human element of the conflict to the fore with his focus on the big personalities and the many cultures involved at Cassino. First and foremost this is a brilliant operational chronology but by the end the reader feels a great empathy with the soldiers who made such huge sacrifices on all sides. Thoroughly recommended.