Anzio

The gripping true story of the Allied gamble that was meant to end the war in Italy - and the battle that nearly became a disaster.

This vivid account by war correspondent Wyndford Vaughan-Thomas, who was with American and British troops on the beachhead, brings one of the Second World War's most dramatic campaigns to life.

By late October 1943, the Allied advance into enemy territory had stalled. Mountainous terrain and fierce Axis resistance had slowed progress to just seventy miles north of Salerno, where they had landed weeks earlier. Ahead lay the Gustav Line - a formidable defensive system of concrete gun emplacements, barbed wire, and deadly traps.

How could the Allies break through defences that gave every advantage to the enemy?

Operation Shingle was their answer. Rather than a direct assault, Allied commanders planned a daring flanking manoeuvre: a surprise amphibious landing behind enemy lines at Anzio. With limited forces, they gambled that speed and surprise would shatter German defences and open the road to Rome.

But the plan did not unfold as expected.

Four months after the landings in January 1944, Allied troops were still trapped in a narrow beachhead, pinned down in waterlogged trenches under relentless fire. What had gone wrong?

Drawing on firsthand experience, interviews with senior commanders, and extensive documentary sources, Vaughan-Thomas delivers a powerful and authoritative account of the campaign. He captures the brutal reality of life on the front line, while also revealing the tensions and misjudgements within the Allied High Command that contributed to the heavy loss of life.

A compelling blend of eyewitness reporting and historical analysis, this is the definitive story of Anzio - from bold ambition to bitter struggle, and ultimately to hard-won victory.

'intelligent, intelligible, and completely fair appraisal of the Anzio campaign ... Mr. Vaughan-Thomas's personal impressions of the fighting men of Anzio, American and British alike, are among the best to come out of the second great war.' G. Glenn Clift, The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society

'he does a first-rate job in recreating the struggle' Kirkus Reviews