{ "item_title" : "The Day of Battle", "item_author" : [" Rick Atkinson", "Rick Atkinson "], "item_description" : "The harrowing story of one of history's most compelling military campaigns. In An Army at Dawn--winner of the Pulitzer Prize--Rick Atkinson provided a dramatic and authoritative history of the Allied triumph in North Africa. Now, in The Day of Battle, he follows the American and British armies as they invade Sicily in July 1943, attack Italy two months later, and then fight their way, mile by bloody mile, north toward Rome. The Italian campaign's outcome was never certain; in fact, President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill, and their military advisors bitterly debated whether an invasion of the so-called soft underbelly of Europe was even wise. But once underway, the commitment to liberate Italy from the Nazis never wavered, despite the agonizing price. The battles at Salerno, Anzio, the Rapido River, and Cassino were particularly ferocious and lethal, yet as the months passed, the Allied forces continued to drive the Germans up the Italian peninsula. Led by Lieutenant General Mark W. Clark, among the war's most complex and controversial commanders, American troops became increasingly determined and proficient. With the liberation of Rome in June 1944, ultimate victory in Europe at last began to seem inevitable. Drawing on extensive new material from a wide array of primary sources, and written with great drama and flair, The Day of Battle is narrative history of the first rank.", "item_img_path" : "https://covers1.booksamillion.com/covers/bam/0/74/352/797/0743527976_b.jpg", "price_data" : { "retail_price" : "39.95", "online_price" : "39.95", "our_price" : "39.95", "club_price" : "39.95", "savings_pct" : "0", "savings_amt" : "0.00", "club_savings_pct" : "0", "club_savings_amt" : "0.00", "discount_pct" : "10", "store_price" : "" } }

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The Mediterranean campaigns

Rick Atkinson doesn't just make military history interesting, he makes it live, animated by the voices of the men who led, the men who died and the survivors who would never forget. In The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944, the second volume of his Liberation Trilogy, Atkinson describes Operation HUSKY and Operation AVALANCHE, the controversial campaigns that ultimately brought the allied forces to Salerno and Anzio, then to Rome and beyond, in astounding "yard by bloody yard" detail. You can feel the heat and the cold, the monotony and the bloodshed, the confusion and the true fog of war. His sources are wide-ranging, from diaries, interviews, oral histories, unpublished manuscripts, letters and memoirs to official records and after-actions reports. You come to know the generals—Eisenhower, Montgomery, Allen, Clark, Patton and Bradley, among them—and the GIs, with their songs, slang and heartbreaking letters, and you understand the price that was paid to liberate Italy from the Nazis. Atkinson is also a compelling narrator, reading this vivid story with affecting poise and compassion.