Monte Cassino: The Hardest Fought Battle of World War II, Paperback

Monte Cassino is the true story of one of the bitterest and bloodiest of the Allied struggles against the Nazi army. Long neglected by historians, the horrific conflict saw over 350,000 casualties, while the worst winter in Italian memory and official incompetence and backbiting only worsened the carnage and turmoil. Combining groundbreaking research in military archives with interviews with four hundred survivors from both sides, as well as soldier diaries and letters, Monte Cassino is both profoundly evocative and historically definitive. Clearly and precisely, Matthew Parker brilliantly reconstructs Europe's largest land battle-which saw the destruction of the ancient monastery of Monte Cassino-and dramatically conveys the heroism and misery of the human face of war.

Matthew Parker is the author of The Battle of Britain. He is a writer and editor specializing in modern history, and lives in London, England.