Sunday,
December 30, 2007
"The War in
The ANNOTICO
Report
"War
was never linear, and in the
The
fight to liberate
Much of
Atkinson's attention is on familiar figures: Gens.
Patton, Bradley, Montgomery, Kesselring, Eisenhower. He is no hagiographer.
Patton was charismatic but sloppy
logistically, often failing to get the proper equipment and medical care to
his frontline troops. Bradley
was more than the "GIs' general" of lore:
tough-minded, often intolerant, sometimes eager
to sack a successful division commander. Lt. Gen. Mark Clark, commander of
the 5th Army, was smart and relentless in combat, but he could be vainglorious
and duplicitous. He shared the BBC reporter's disappointment: "They
didn't even let us have the newspaper headlines for the fall of
The troops
- officers and enlisted, American and British - fought bravely and tenaciously,
but also made mistakes, grumbled and engaged in petty rivalries. The
Allied strategy is laid out in detail, with maps and lengthy explanations of
the disagreements among officers. He describes the assault at Monte Cassino but does not decree whether the aerial
bombardment of the abbey was necessary. [ Not only
was it NOT necessary, since the Germans honored their pledge not to occupy it,
BUT the ruins made for outstanding cover for the German troops after the Abbey
was bombed to rubble by Allied planes]
"The Day of
Battle" honestly reports incidents that today would have been
instant scandals, had they not been "covered up" to save careers,
maintain troop and back home morale, all under the
basis of "National Security", like the failure to block German
soldiers from fleeing
A careful read, constantly reinforces the
significance of the "Law of Unintended Consequences" as Geo Bush
re-learns every day.
Cleveland
Plain Dealer
Tony
Perry
Sunday,
December 30, 2007
Near the end of
his copiously reported, briskly written "The Day of Battle: The War in
"Boys, we're
on the back page now," the reporter said. "They've landed in
And so it has
been, for six-plus decades. The fight for Sicily and then up the rugged,
heavily defended Italian coastline to Rome and beyond largely is forgotten
beneath the avalanche of journalism and moviemaking that chronicles the grand
crusade from the beaches at Normandy to Hitler's bunker in Berlin.
If the Allies'
middle campaign, between defeating Rommel in North Africa and storming ashore
at Normandy, is to get its due, it well might be from "The Day of
Battle," the second volume of Atkinson's intended trilogy of World War II.
His first in the series, "An Army at Dawn," won him his second
Pulitzer Prize in 2003. The reporting is meticulous and heavily footnoted - 173
pages of notes and sources.
Much is from
letters and after-action reports written as the troops slogged from one battle
to another. The book is not cast in the current fad of World War II accounts
drawn from the memories of veterans. To be sure, the author's respect for the
troops is immense, but he avoids the "greatest generation" template.
The troops - officers and enlisted, American and British - fought bravely and
tenaciously, but also made mistakes, grumbled and engaged in petty rivalries.
Much of
Atkinson's attention is on familiar figures: Gens.
Patton, Bradley, Montgomery, Kesselring, Eisenhower. He is no hagiographer.
Patton was charismatic but sloppy logistically, often failing to get the proper
equipment and medical care to his frontline troops. Bradley was more than the
"GIs' general" of lore: tough-minded, often intolerant, sometimes eager to sack a successful division commander. Lt.
Gen. Mark Clark, commander of the 5th Army, was smart and relentless in combat,
but he could be vainglorious and duplicitous. He shared the BBC reporter's
disappointment: "They didn't even let us have the newspaper headlines for
the fall of
The Allied
strategy is laid out in detail, with maps and lengthy explanations of the
disagreements among officers. Atkinson does not try to settle the myriad
disputes that linger among World War II buffs about the Italian campaign. He
describes the assault at Monte Cassino but does not
decree whether the aerial bombardment of the abbey was necessary.
Atkinson's
previous works - including "In the Company of Soldiers," about the
2003 assault on
"The Day of
Battle" does not glamorize incidents that today would have been instant
scandals, like the conduct of individual American soldiers or the failure to
block German soldiers from fleeing
When German
planes bombed Allied ships in the
"Rumors
spread that the Germans had used gas," Atkinson writes. The Army quickly
learned the truth: Gas canisters aboard the
One of Atkinson's
triumphs is his ability to capture the specific incident and the lesson that
lurks beneath: that war changes and yet remains the same. "War was never
linear, and in the
The fight to
liberate
Perry wrote this
review for the Los Angeles Times.
The
ANNOTICO Reports Can be Viewed (and are Archived) on:
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Email: annotico@earthlink.net