Anzio: The Gamble that Failed

Great Battles of History

by Martin Blumenson

By the end of 1943 the Allied campaign in Italy had become a stalemate as German forces stopped the Allied advance cold at Cassino. In a country where the fighting front could be no longer than the eighty-mile width of the Italian peninsula, in a region where rugged mountains impeded maneuvers and favored the defense, in an effort where Allied resources were sharply restricted and winter was looming, prospects for a swift and decisive victory were slim. Battling their way up the Italian mainland promised to be a slow and bloody affair.

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

212 pages, Hardcover

First published March 21, 1978

About the author

Martin Blumenson was a soldier in the US army, and a military historian, and a recognised authority on the life of Gen. George S. Patton Jr.

Blumenson received a Bachelors and Masters degree from Bucknell University in Pennsylvania. He received a second master's degree in history from Harvard University. He also was an exellent pianist, performing at Carnegie Hall as a young man.

He served as a U.S. Army officer in northwestern Europe during World War II.
After the war he lived in France for a number of years, where he met his wife of 55 years, Genevieve Adelbert Blumenson, who died in 2000.

Blumenson again served with the U.S. Army during the Korean War, and later worked in the Office of the Chief of Military History until 1967. After this he became an adviser on civil disorders for the Johnson administration.

Reviews

[Dimitri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Since Blumenson wrote the Green Book on the U.S. part of the Italian campaign, nobody was better placed to digest its main operations into shorter monographs of greater clarity. In this respect, his small paragraphs have an Osprey feel. On the other hand, the scattered insertion of individual soldiers' most memorable moments can't disguise the dullness of diluted Official History prose..