The Liri Valley: Canada's World War II Breakthrough to Rome

Canadian Battle #2

by Mark Zuehlke

The second instalment in military historian Mark Zuehlke’s compelling World War II tales of Canadians overcoming insurmountable odds in Italy.

For the allied armies fighting their way up the Italian boot in early 1944, Rome was the prize that could only be won through one of the greatest offensives of the war. Following upon his book about the battle of Ortona, Mark Zuehlke returns to the Mediterranean theatre of World War II with this gripping tribute to the valiant Canadians who opened the way for the Allies to take Rome.

The Liri Valley is testament to the bravery of these Canadians, like the badly wounded Captain Pierre Potvin, who survived more than thirty hours alone in the hell of no man’s land. This book, like the battle it records, will live long in readers’ memories.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, World War II, War, Military Fiction, Canada, Military History

528 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2002

About the author

On January 1, 1981, Mark Zuehlke walked away from a journalism career to pursue magazine and book writing fulltime. He has never looked back. In 1992, Mark published his first book—Magazine Writing From the Boonies (co-authored with Louise Donnelly)—and now concentrates almost exclusively on writing of books.

Fascinated by Canada’s military heritage, Mark first set to writing about the role Canadians played in World War II after discussing the Battle of Ortona with several veterans in a Royal Canadian Legion following a Remembrance Day Ceremony in Kelowna, B.C. Discovering no book had been written on this pivotal battle, Mark decided to fill that gap. Ortona: Canada’s Epic World War II Battle was the result. The book’s success encouraged him to develop The Canadian Battle Series, which documents the Canadian World War II experience and has resulted in his being declared by Jack Granatstein as the nation’s leading popular military historian.

Mark is also an award winning mystery writer, whose popular Elias McCann series has garnered much critical praise. Set in storm-swept west coast Vancouver Island village of Tofino, the series follows the investigations of reluctant community coroner Elias McCann. Hands Like Clouds, the debut title in this series, won the Crime Writers of Canada’s Arthur Ellis Award for the 2000 Best First Novel and the third instalment, Sweep Lotus, was nominated for the 2004 Arthur Ellis Best Novel.

When not writing, this Victoria, British Columbia resident can often be found tinkering around the Fernwood heritage house he shares with partner and fellow writer Frances Backhouse. He enjoys hiking, backpacking, cycling, kayaking, travelling, and cooking.

Reviews

[Davina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mark Zuehlke has started to grow on me. The Canadians put a large number of men in the field, relative to their population, but being a lesser partner in the Grand Alliance are often overlooked. Outside of the official histories, there is a trickle of material, particularly when you compare this to the literature on the American's at Normandy or the British at Arnhem. He does a fine job telling the stories of the men who fought the battle as much as the generals who lead it. There is an occasional detail which is incorrect -- most were quibbling details on the minutia of the Canadian and Commonwealth forces. Those reservations aside, he does a good job in describing the battlefield as well as making sense of the events which occurred during the relatively short period of the battles, and does a commendable job of communicating the experience of the common soldier. There are issues which this work illustrates which the author doesn't develop. To mention one, is the tiny size of the Canadian Army before the war, and budgets which hadn't allowed for any sort of training on any scale, left the leadership of the Canadian Army without the experience of leading Brigades, let alone Divisions or Corps, before the outbreak of hostilities. You can see a bit of the education of some of these officers. That story is there, but not something the author puts on focus on to. Well done, Sir, well done.

[Sleepy Boy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Canadians I feel are oft overlooked in our studies of WW2 (worldwide and speaking for myself as a North American). Zuehlke does excellently to remedy that.

[Bernie Charbonneau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Continuing the saga of the I Canadian Corps in the heart of Italy during WWII. brings us closer to Rome. The second book in the series is just as informative as the first. With outstanding detail to the situation at hand, one cannot help but sense the intense fighting that encapsulated the brave men that fought. These books might be a bit more detailed than some would like but for myself they are perfect.

[Michael Dorosh · Rating 1 out of 5]

Riddled with stupid errors and betrays the fact that Zuehlke is simply not a military historian of any worth. One is much better off to read Dancocks' D-DAY DODGERS or even Gerald Nicholson's OFFICIAL HISTORY OF THE CANADIAN ARMY IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR VOLUME II: THE CANADIANS IN ITALY which is now available in .pdf format for free on the Army's website.



Very disappointed by the surface level errors, which make one wonder how well the book was actually researched. The first error is in the second sentence of the main text - Patton's 7th Army is misidentified as the 5th Army - and things go downhill from there. The .303 Vickers gun is called a .50 calibre on p. 53, the Perth Regiment is described as a Scottish Regiment with a St. Andrews Cross on their badge (in fact, their postwar cap badge did have this cross - the war time badge most certainly did not), and the photo of a brass and reed band is labeled as the RCR pipes and drums (which did not exist until 30 years after the war). If Zuehlke can't get the little details right, how can we trust him on the weightier stuff?



Sadly lacking a decent proofreading by someone in the know.



Even beyond that, the book is "history lite", which I have no qualms with. It's great that more people are getting interested in history. There were many good quotes by veterans, but then Zuehlke softens the impact by apologizing for using this approach in the preface. Why bother? It's not as if Zuehlke has the staff training of actual military men like Brian Reid (NO HOLDING BACK), nor does anyone dream he would be able to analyze primary documents the way Terry Copp does (THE BRIGADE, MAPLE LEAF ROUTE series). He's a social historian, so why apologize for not being something he's not? Much better books out there for the serious researcher. For those just looking for Canadian war stories, I don't suppose the fact that Zuehlke doesn't know a tuba from a bagpipe should matter much to them.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very important work on a major Italian campaign by the Canadian Army after Ortona, but largely forgotten, unlike the earlier campaign, though it was much larger and longer. As with Zuehlke's books on The Sicilian and Ortona campaigns, some incredible tales of bravery by the Canadian officers and men.
Unfortunately, quite a bit more so than those earlier battles, the Liri campaign suffered from a lot of higher level incompetence by a number of higher Canadian commanders and staff officers. This led to much unnecessary confusion and many needless deaths.
As with the other two books, I found it difficult to correlate the maps to the text, as all are bunched at the beginning of the book. More photos would have been welcome, too.
Next, Zuehlke's book on the Canadians's Gothic Line campaign, his last on the Italian theatre.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another entry into Zuehlke's series on the Canadian Army's actions during the Second World War. This particular book follows the series of conflicts starting with the culmination of the battle for Monte Cassino, followed by the hard push through the defensive lines of the Liri Valley and ends with the capture of Rome. Brilliantly written, with tremendous use of personal accounts. As with the other books in his series, I would not recommend for anyone new to the Second World War, but they provide an unrivalled account of the small-scale actions that made up these large military campaigns.

[Dave Elviss · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this informative book.

[David Harrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

awesome book and i was unaware that canadians actually marched into Rome triumphly

[Tim Barron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mark is the best writer I have read in a long time that captures our Canadian WW2 experience in amazing detail, right down to unit actions. His whole series is a must read for all Canadians.

[Bruce Loney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written, researched, informative, the maps made the difference and proud of Canadians.

[Terry Hinkley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love how detailed and informative Marks books are. Anyone who wants to know the stories of our Canadian, British, French, Polish and Commonwealth Heroes experiences during WWII where they saw their friends and comrades live and die on a daily basis. While wondering if they themselves will make it through to the next day. Their stories are told with great care and make for a enjoyable but also heartbreaking read. I have to keep tissue paper handy at all times. These books are valuable. They will keep our Veterans contributions and our history alive for all to read for generations to come.

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent ground level account of the Canadian 1st Corps battles during Operation Diadem May June 1944.