Countdown to Cassino: The Battle of Mignano Gap, 1943

Bowlby, who has interviewed and corresponded with many of the battle’s veterans, skilfully weaves into his text many first-hand accounts of the bloody fighting in the rugged and inhospitable terrain around Mignano. His book fills an important gap in the story of the Italian campaign and pays long-overdue tribute to the bravery of the men – British, American and Canadian – who fought in this curiously neglected overture to the battles to come. It certainly deserves to stand beside Fred Majdalany’s classic account of Cassino on the shelves of all military historians.