Monte Cassino January-May 1944: The Legend of the Green Devils

• A day-to-day account of the monumental four-month battle
  
  
• Vivid first-hand accounts of soldiers on both sides
  
  
• Tactical and strategic analysis of the engagements
  
  
• Beautifully illustrated with high-quality photographs and plans from the author’s personal collection

In 1944, two Allied armies were ready to launch an assault against German forces in central Italy so they could march to Rome. There were three routes available to get there. The fastest one passed through the Liri valley. The entrance to the valley, however, was blocked by the rugged Monte Cassino massif with its hilltop medieval monastery and the town below, which controlled the battlefield. In front of them ran the Gustav Line, the most formidably constructed defensive line the Western Allies would ever come up against.

The second possible route would be to outflank the Gustav Line to reach the valley, but they would also have to capture the innumerable rough peaks and ridges along the massif on a treacherous terrain that favoured the defenders.

The third and last option would be to breach the Gustav Line directly in front of the Cassino town. Nevertheless, they would have to engage in costly house-to-house fighting against stubborn German paratroopers lurking beneath the rubble. They decided to try all three routes. None of those was easy and all proved deadly...

[custom_html] A gripping day-to-day account of the Allied plan to capture Rome that led to a four-month bloodbath.
[/custom_html] 

[smallDescription]A gripping day-to-day account of the Allied plan to capture Rome that led to a four-month bloodbath.
[/smallDescription]



[tabs] [tab title="AUTHOR(S)"]Interested in aviation from an early age, Angelos Mansolas served for thirty years as a communications technician in the Hellenic Air Force, retiring with the rank of flight lieutenant. Mansolas is a dedicated military aviation researcher and since 1996, he has worked as an author/writer and aircraft colour profile artist for several Greek-language history magazines. He currently works for the Greek magazine Military History and specialises in Byzantine history, the American Civil War, military aviation and First World War/Second World War battles.


[/tab] [/tabs]