Monte Cassino\' by Matthew Parker

¶ … Monte Cassino' by matthew parker 'Monte Cassino'

The Second World War has certainly been the bloodiest wars in the history of mankind, and, while some of its events have received a lot of attention from the public over the years, others have almost remained unknown. In spite of its death toll and the suffering that people have undergone during the time, the battle of Monte Cassino is still a controversial battle to most people.

Matthew Parker has gone at presenting the world with an elaborate view of the events having happened during the battle of Monte Cassino. His book, Monte Cassino: The Story of the Hardest-fought Battle of World War Two, provides important information on the subject, as the reader virtually has the feeling that he or she is present on the battlefield during the five months long campaign.

The battle's name refers to the monastery placed on top of a mountain in Rome, which presumably stood as the center of the German impenetrable defense line. The author presents each of the forces involved in the battle against the Nazi war machine. The story of the Poles clearly distinguishes itself from the others, as it stands as a hallmark of people fighting with all their strength against those that have destroyed their country.

The book is divided into five parts, and, the first one is intended to present people with the events that have lead to the battle of Monte Cassino. The battle had been fated to be disastrous from its very first days, when attacks from the British and from the Americans have ended with little to no gains in exchange of a large number of casualties. The following allied attempts to break through the famous German Gustav line have all ended as the first. There had been a series of factors, ranging from bad weather to bad positioning, preventing the allies from advancing further into Rome.

After observing the strong resistance that they had encountered and the bad luck that they had, the allied forces had decided to make a significant move by bombing the monastery of Monte Cassino on the 15th of February, 1944. Even with the highest point of the Gustav line destroyed, the allies did not manage to advance into Rome until the time that the Germans retreated because they had no supplies left.

Parker has succeeded in accomplishing what little writers actually attempted to accomplish, with the Battle of Monte Cassino receiving lesser attention from other authors. The battle of Monte Cassino has had a slight WWI touch into it, as the conditions from the battles having lasted from 1914 to 1918 being similar to the ones in eastern Rome in 1944.

The book's name, Monte Cassino: The Story of the Hardest-fought Battle of World War Two, is somewhat exaggerated by the author, who has apparently considered the battle to be more important like the ones in Verdun and in Stalingrad. Also, the title is not very exact, as the events at Monte Cassino have involved a campaign, and not a battle.