Monte Cassino: The Hardest Fought Battle of World War II by Matthew Parker

Monte Cassino: The Hardest Fought Battle of World War II by Matthew Parker is a serviceable history of the 4 allied attempts to cease this key feature of the German fortifications in Italy. The book not only deals with Americans, British and Germans but the Italian locals Polish and New Zealand as well. The author has used various sources including interviews with survivors from all sides.

The one real irritation I have is that the pacing of the book seems to be off. We get to the final German surrender within five pages later we're talking about veterans having problems integrating in society. It's like he ran into a maximum word count ceiling. It's a little frustrating much is made of the attempts to bridge the river and get armor across but the way the text is written it seems like victory was assured at that point which undercuts his main thesis. That the battle was closer to World War I then World War II.

Yes I consider there to be some hyperbole in the subtitle. That's probably an issue with the PR department and not the author.

A useful history recommended for its handling of Polish and New Zealand accounts of the battle.

Is available through Abebooks.


For more WWII book reviews take a look at My World War II bookshelf.