Product Description

This is the story of the Anglo-American amphibious assault and subsequent battle on the Italian west coast at Anzio which was launched in January 1944 in a bold attempt to outflank the formidable German defences known as the 'Gustav Line'. ANZIO - THE FRICTION OF WAR outlines the strategic background to the offensive before detailing the landing, the development of an Allied defensive position, the battles in and around the perimeter, the stalemate, the breakout and the capture of Rome on 4 June 1944. While assessing the events at Anzio with the eye of an experienced military historian, Lloyd Clark also examines in detail the human response to the battle from high command to foot soldier. He also emphasises the German story - the first time this has ever been done.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #85336 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08-09
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

Review

'Lloyd Clark's lucid, elegantly written book is well overdue... Absolutely first class'

Synopsis
This is the story of the Anglo-American amphibious assault and subsequent battle on the Italian west coast at Anzio which was launched in January 1944 in a bold attempt to outflank the formidable German defences known as the 'Gustav Line'. "Anzio: The Friction of War" outlines the strategic background to the offensive before detailing the landing, the development of an Allied defensive position, the battles in and around the perimeter, the stalemate, the breakout and the capture of Rome on 4 June 1944. While assessing the events at Anzio with the eye of an experienced military historian, Lloyd Clark also examines in detail the human response to the battle from high command to foot soldier. He also emphasises the German story - the first time this has ever been done.

About the Author

Currently Senior Lecturer at the Dept of War Studies, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Lloyd Clark is one of the UK's leading military historians. He has written several books, has lectured all over the world, is a frequent guide to battlefields on four continents and has worked extensively on radio and TV as both historical adviser and interviewee. He has conducted several battlefield tours to Anzio.

Customer Reviews

A Classy Page Turner
I am writing this review at the end of Boxing Day - less than 48 hours after being given this book as a Christmas gift - and I have finished it. This may say something about my dull Yule, but it is more to do with this book. I gobbled up nearly 400 pages saying to myself 'one my chapter...one more chapter', and before I knew where I was, Christmas had gone and I'd finished the book! My wife knows that I like history, and I have read just about everything by Beevor, Holmes and Hastings, and I shall now do the same with Lloyd Clark. Anzio is just so readable, and like all good history it carries its research lightly. Brilliantly written, a captivating battle and above all, moving and highly atmospheric.

I couldn't put this book down!
I read this book in just two sittings. The hours just flew by. The story is just so compulsive that I had to find out what happened next. It is written in such a style that keeps the reader as interested in the charaters as much as the events. It just hooks you and reels the reader in. The story of Anzio is not one that I knew much about, but this was such an eye-opener that I can not believe that I had neglected WWII in Italy for so long. Anzio was an awful battle, and I did not realise how close the troops that landed on that coast near Rome in 1944 came to being pushed back in the Med. This was like a WWI battle using WWII weapons and tactics. Bloody, relentless and awesome. This is a first class book. Outstanding in every way. The author is a master story teller, but backs it up with detailed research. He just has a way of making military history not only educational, but a pleasure to read - which, as we all know, is not always the case. Outstanding.

Remarkable battle. Remarkable book
This is a military history book unlike any that I have ever read. I have never been so spellbound by any history as I have by this. I have to admit that I knew little of Anzio before reading this, but I was immediately drawn in by a fascinating campaign and this critical battle. I never knew that Italy, other than Monte Cassino, was such a dreadful slog. Anzio (I thought) was a sideshow, but this book reveals how central it was to both Allied strategy, and British prospects for the remaining months of the war. It was a hideous battle, like a lethal game of chess, taking in army, navy and airforce. The characters are so well sketched that I thought that I knew them by the end of this stout volume, and the scene setting and battle scenes are so vivid that I felt my heart pounding as I turned the pages. A page turner of a miltiary history book - that's a novelty - but that is exactly what this book is! The author is obviously something of a master of things military, the ease of his descriptions and telling little remarks about the plans, troops, battlefield, tactics and weaponry told me that, but he is also a master story teller. I am not to proud to say that I ended the book with a tear in my eye and sad that I had finished it. I am an avid reader but have never been prompted to write a review on Amazon before, but this book is just superb. Well done Lloyd Clark, next book please!