Looking for good books on the Italian campaign

Discussion in 'Italy' started by plnelson, Sep 6, 2016.

  1. dbf

    dbf Moderatrix MOD

    Ensign in Italy, A Platoon Commander's story: Philip Brutton
    3rd Bn Welsh Guards/1st Gds Bde
    The framework of the book is formed by quotes from personal diary as well as letters he sent home.

    A History of the Irish Guards in the Second World War: Fitzgerald
    Deals with all theatres in which the regiment fought, but the ten chapters on 1st Bn IG in Italy make for both grim and entertaining reading.
     
  2. Orwell1984

    Orwell1984 Senior Member

    Some more CanCon:

    Memoirs of Gordie Bannerman - Second World War - Diaries, Letters, and Stories - Remembering those who served - Remembrance - Veterans Affairs Canada

    Served as a gunner in Italy

    The Long Road Home: Autobiography of a Canadian Soldier in Italy in WWII

    By Fred Cederberg

    https://www.amazon.com/Long-Road-Ho...773761055/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

    The Stretcher-bearers By David Gordon

    Memoirs of a member of 24 Canadian Field Ambulance, attached to the Perth Regiment, 5th Canadian Armoured Division, in Italy

    https://www.amazon.com/stretcher-bearers-David-Gordon/dp/0969731728/ref=cm_wl_huc_item

    Not all of us were brave by Stanley Scislowski

    Service in the Perth Regiment in Italy, 1943-1945

    https://www.amazon.com/Not-All-Us-W...6756&sr=1-1&keywords=not+all+of+us+were+brave
     
  3. Ron Goldstein

    Ron Goldstein WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    Forgot to mention one of my favourites ..........

    The race for Trieste by Geoffrey Cox.

    An awful lot of personal memories for me, because it covers the period when I first joined the 4th QOH and the year I was to be in Trieste, but it really gives you an idea of what it was like to be in the front line of an Armoured Division in the closing stages of the war in Italy.

    ron
     
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  4. plnelson

    plnelson Member

  5. minden1759

    minden1759 Senior Member

    That cannot be right.

    Try getting it through Amazon.co.uk

    It is readily available here in UK.

    Frank
     
  6. Stuart Avery

    Stuart Avery In my wagon & not a muleteer.

    Two books that give a balanced account of all the Divisions that where at Anzio are as follows.
    ANZIO. The Full Story of the Campaign WYNFORD VAUGHAN- THOMAS..

    ANZIO 1944: AN UNEXPECTED FURY Peter Verney. The maps & the illustrations in both books are of a sharp quality. Not bad for a round figure of about £20.00. It may be me, but all the Divisional accounts are not as gripping as the two above books. Lets hope your pain meds for your surgery does not last that long. Bottom of the food (command) chain- the dog-face in the foxhole (or is it the fox-face in the dog-hole) That's a saying I've not come across before. I do hope your you are soon back on your feet.
    Sorry that you are in pain.

    Stu.
     
  7. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    as mentioned on ww2f, look on abebooks for charlie company.
    alot cheaper on there.
     
  8. Skoyen89

    Skoyen89 Senior Member

  9. HAARA

    HAARA Well-Known Member

    You could try "Ever your own, Johnnie, Sicily and Italy, 1943-45", this being a personal account told through letters and candid diaries, together with a researched commentary of an anti aircraft battery turned ground artillery from its time of landing in Sicily through to demobilisation.
    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ever-Johnnie-Sicily-Italy-1943-45/dp/1326598929
     
  10. minden1759

    minden1759 Senior Member

    That looks interesting.

    I have just bought a copy.

    Regards

    Frank
     
  11. Charley Fortnum

    Charley Fortnum Dreaming of Red Eagles

    I indirectly inherited a copy of the latter from my great uncle - about whose war service I know very little beyond the fact that he and his brother were in the SBS.

    Were they operating at Anzio? Very likely, I suppose.
     
  12. minden1759

    minden1759 Senior Member

    James.

    If you want a book on the SAS/SBS operating in the Aegean then try Churchill's Folly. It is a fascinating account of a British Army stupidity in Nov 43 - sticking a four Battalion Infantry Brigade on an isolated Dodecanese Island called Leros with no mobility, no artillery, no air cover and a useless defence plan. We got a drubbing.

    Regards

    Frank
     
  13. Simon_Fielding

    Simon_Fielding Withnail67

    An unusual book but worth a look - humane and empathic. Well edited and introduced...

    To War with the Black Watch

    [​IMG]
    Gian Gaspare Napolitano
    Birlinn, 2007 - History - 183 pages

    First published in an Italian-language anti-fascist newspaper in Switzerland in 1944, this remarkable book tells the story of Lieutenant Pinto, appointed Italian liaison officer to the Scottish Black Watch. Based on the author's own experiences as a Black Watch liaison officer, To War with the Black Watch is a sharp, witty and moving insight into Scots-Italian relations in the latter part of the Second World War.
     
  14. Combover

    Combover Guest

  15. Waddell

    Waddell Well-Known Member

    I am not widely read on Italian Campaign memoirs but enjoyed Bowlby and Milligan. Another good read from the Italian Campaign is Nicholas Mosley's 'Time at War'. He was the son of Oswald Mosley and earned a Military Cross serving with the London Irish Rifles in Italy. Quite a lot of action and written by a man in an unusual position during the war.

    Scott
     
  16. 17thDYRCH

    17thDYRCH Senior Member

    I ordered the book by Cederberg. Thanks for the heads up.
     
  17. Stuart Avery

    Stuart Avery In my wagon & not a muleteer.

    The Rock of Anzio. From Sicily to Dachau: A History of the U.S. 45TH Infantry Division. Chapter 13 To the Eternal Dark.

    29 April-7 May 1945. Something went pear-shaped with the U.S. 42ND Infantry Division. I would not have wanted to witness any of this. One hell of a moving account in another Country.
    Stu.
     

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