The Savage Storm: The Battle for Italy 1943 by James Holland is a gripping account of the Allied invasion of mainland Italy from the beach landings near Messina and Salerno. The campaign in Italy was meant to be short and low risk, but it turned out to be anything but. Between September and December 1943, the Allied powers and the Germans engaged in brutal combat that essentially stalled at the Gustav Line south of Rome.
Savage Storm is the first book by James Holland that
I have read and so I was pretty excited to read it and get a sense of what
Holland is all about. I chose Savage Storm because Canada did play a pretty significant
role in the fighting and so I wanted to read up on that aspect of the history
as well. I am Canadian after all.
And I really
enjoyed Savage Storm. Unlike any military history books I have read,
Holland used the journals of combatants from both sides to personalize the
conflict in a pretty unique way. Every move made by the American, Dominion or
German armies was personalized by diary accounts of members of those armies. Some
of the soldiers died but some survived and we were able to follow their actions in the campaign through their diary entries. It was a truly fantastic add to the over
feel of the book. I wish more miliary historians took similar approaches to
crafting the narrative of a major conflict.
That being
said, Holland goes through all of the high-level strategic discussions that
lead to the campaign in Italy, such as the desire to get heavy bombers onto the
Italian mainland with relatively easy access to south German and Austrian
aircraft factories. The allies were focused on destroying the Luftwaffe prior
to the Normandy invasions and airfields in Italy was viewed as a key to that.
Holland also goes into the general reasons why the allied powers failed to achieve the intended aims of the campaign set out prior to the invasion of the Italian mainland. In fact, Holland argues the Allies were not all in on the campaign, the Americans were pushing and moving equipment to the Pacific, the British were focused on the Mediterranean, but everyone was also gearing up to Operation Overlord and the planned Normandy invasions for 1944. Without proper equipment of men and resources, the campaign was brittle and bad weather made things extremely challenging.
There was less discussion about strategy from the German side, but more about the conflict between Rommel and Kesselring and the consequences for German operations on the ground. Of course, Holland also deals with the Italians, the negotiations leading to the armistice as well as the rapid German response immediately after Italy surrendered to the Allies.
The fighting in Italy is maybe not as well-known as the fighting in northwestern Europe, in France, in Holland, in Germany or in the east, at Stalingrad, or example. So, this book is a great read for anyone interested in learning more about the conflict in the mediterranean.
And it has lots of great maps, photos, abbreviations, timelines, etc. Great add for a book on fairly complicated troop moves.
Publication date: 2023 | Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press | Page Count: 624
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