Italy's Sorrow: A Year of War, 1944-1945

In a chilling history, renowned historian James Holland deftly relates Italy's dark forgotten years

During the Second World War, the campaign in Italy was the most destructive fought in Europe - a long, bitter and highly attritional conflict that raged up the country's mountainous leg. For frontline troops, casualty rates at Cassino and along the notorious Gothic Line were as high as they had been on the Western Front in the First World War. There were further similarities too: blasted la...