Rome was liberated on 5 June 1944 but the Italian campaign had another eleven gruelling months to run. The US Fifth and British Eighth Armies drove across the Arno River, capturing Florence on 5 August. Once again The Wehrmacht’s Tenth and Fourteenth Armies eluded destruction, withdrawing into the Gothic Line in the Northern Apennines. The Eighth Army, advancing along the Adriatic coast and the Fifth Army in the mountains north of Florence penetrated this strong German defensive belt between 25 August and the end of September. Yet the Allied campaign stalled due to a lethal combination of supply and manpower shortages, the early onset of winter and the rugged terrain favouring the German defenders. The Allied April spring offensive saw Eighth Army breakthrough the Argenta Gap into the Po Valley, while Fifth Army captured Bologna.. After crossing the Po River the Allies fanned out across Northern Italy, before the Nazi surrender on 3 May 1945. These dramatic events are described in words and images in this superb Images of War book. AUTHOR: Jon Diamond MD is a kidney specialist in the USA with a deep interest in the Second World War. He is a keen collector of photographs. Along with other titles his Stilwell and the Chindits, War in the South Pacific and Invasion of Sicily, Invasion of the Italian Mainland: Salerno to the Gustav Line, 1943-1944, Onto Rome-Anzio and Victory at Cassino are published by Pen and Sword in their Images of War series.
250 b/w photographs