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The Battle of Sicily - How the Allies Lost Their Chance For Total Victory (1991)
Front Cover Book Details
Genre Non-Fiction
Subject Sicily (Italy) - History - 1870-1945; World War, 1939-1945 - Campaigns - Italy - Sicily
Publication Date 1991
Format Hardcover (8.5 x 6.0 mm)
Publisher Orion Books
Extras Dust Jacket; Dust Jacket Cover
Personal Details
Acquire Date 6/10/2010
Condition Very Good/Good
Rating 0
Links Library of Congress
Product Details
LoC Classification D763.S5 .M58 1991
Dewey 940.54/2158
ISBN 9780517575253
No. of Pages 366
First Edition No
Rare No
Notes/Review
First, I'll clarify the subtitle. It should be obvious that the Allies achieved total victory in the end. So what did the authors mean? The last sentence of the book (before the epilogue, that is) clears it up: "The Battle of Sicily had been a turning point: the Allies' best opportunity to win a decisive victory in the Mediterranean had gone by the wayside."

At the other end of the book, in the introduction, we learn that the purpose of this book "is to tell the story of the Battle of Sicily primarily from the point of view of the Axis military commanders." The usual case of these campaign books is to tell us what happened, and that is done by describing the movements of large units (in this case, at the brigade level and above) and convey the results of those movements. Necessarily, we learn the movements of both sides, the results of battle, the casualties, and so on.

"Point of view" in this sort of book seems somewhat tenuous: we know that Hitler, or Kesselring, or Hube gave orders. But we know that Eisenhower, or Montgomery, or Patton gave orders, too. These orders were executed well, or poorly, or not at all. This is all relayed to the reader in an even-handed manner. Where's the point of view? In this case, it's in which people we learn more about. All the characters in this book held the rank of General or would achieve that rank by the end of the war. We get short biographies of all the German and Italian Generals, but none of the Allied Generals. The Epilogue is a run-down of what happened to all these Axis Generals after the campaign.

I find the last few pages before the Epilogue (294-303) the most interesting. This is where the authors discuss the far-reaching effects of the campaign., where they make the case that the Allies lost a chance for greater victory.

The book includes a few photographs, some tables detailing the order of battle, and a number of maps. I find maps critical in understanding the action. It's tough to make clear maps without the use of color, and sometimes scale is a problem. The maps included are helpful, but I found that using Google maps was a big improvement. The route numbers haven't changed since 1943, and being able to search place names, being able to zoom in and out, aided my understanding of events.