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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.54215
EAN num: 9781844150984
ISBN number: 1844150984
Label: Pen and Sword
Manufacturer: Pen and Sword
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 448
Printing Date: 2004-09
Publishing house: Pen and Sword
Sale Popularity Level: 1495788
Studio: Pen and Sword
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When the Allies invaded mainland Italy in 1943 they intended only a clearing-up operation to knock Italy out of the war, but Hitler ordered the German armies to defend every foot of the country, which they did until May 1945 after a bloody and bitter struggle. The 'Tug of War' was the mysterious force which causes a war to race out of control, grow into a huge conflict and attract vast numbers of men, tanks, guns and aircraft, which the Allies could ill afford, to reach objectives they had never intended in the very first place. The book analyses the main battles of Salerno, Cassino, Anzio, the march on Rome and the characteristics of the soldiers involved and the rivalries of the Allied commanders.
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Rated by buyers 
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Graham & Bidwell served as officers in the Royal Artillery in North Africa and Italy during the war. They have written other books together, but here they have produced a very good overview of the war in Italy from 1943 to 45.
"Tug of War" is the history of the Italian campaign, primarily from the Allied perspective. It is a blow-by-blow account of the major and minor battles, focusing on the campaign up to the capture of Rome on June 4th 1944. This focus is also its biggest weaknesses. While there is a good overview, from both sides, on the very first year of the Allied campaign, the remainder is given short thrift, reinforcing the view that Italy was a sideshow once the D-Day landings had occurred. This is a shame, because the operations north of Rome to the Alps were in many respects better handled then what happened south of Rome, and also had an arguably more significant impact on the force allocations of the Wehrmacht. It was after the removal of the DRAGOON (Allied landing in Southern France) landing force that the Allied armies in Italy were numerically inferior to the German forces, as far as I know. Yet they still managed to drive these back to the Alps, despite Italy being a very forbidding battlefield for the attacker, especially if he arrives from the south.
Graham & Bidwell are immensely critical of most of the leaders of the Allied forces. They have no time for either Alexander or Clark (the very first seen as lacking grip, the latter as vainglorious), and they are refreshingly candid about shortcomings in leadership regardless of nationality. Their argument that the best commander in Italy was Feldmarschall Kesselring (closely followed by Juin of the Corps Expeditonnaire Francaise) has a lot of merit, and while they rightly admire the leadership qualities of him, or von Senger und Etterlin, a German Korps commander at Anzio who was to rise to command the Army Group in Italy when Kesselring left, they are not given to uncritical adulation of Wehrmacht officers either, pointing out the shortcomings of von Mackensen at the head of 14. Armee.
Arguably the most important battles in Italy were the landings at Salerno and Anzio, and the ill-considered attrition battle for Monte Cassino. Graham & Bidwell deal with the landings in some detail, down to tactical level, while focussing on some of the operational aspects of the Cassino battles.
Their account of the Liri battles, Operation DIADEM, is focussing on the actions of the French and American forces, rather then the British, and this has to be applauded. Especially since the extraordinary performance of the French is often overlooked, and the extraordinary stupidity with which the British and American commanders sidelined the French Corps is often forgotten as well. Graham & Bidwell make a point out of reminding us of both.
The book has a good narrative flow and writing style, and contains a set of pictures and standard maps. It would have been helpful to have a better OOB, because the movement of forces in and out of theatre on both sides was significant. The quality of maps in the paperback edition on which this review is based was acceptable, but by no means impressive.
Overall I wish that this book (or at least my edition) had some additional features, such as better maps, and a better treatment of the campaign north of Rome. Hence the very harsh judgment to give it only three stars. It is really just a nudge and a wink from a fourth star. Anyone interested in the campaign in Italy should get this.
Rated by buyers 
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"Tug of War: The Battle for Italy, 1943-1945" by Dominick Graham and Shelford Bidwell is a work that rightly belongs on the shelves of all serious students of the Second World War who have interest in the Mediterranean Theatre of Operations for its depth of topic. Graham and Bidwell present a thoroughly researched treatise of the topic (ie., the Allied invasion and battles for control of Italy) that covers strategic and operational issues, as well as command personalities, in great detail. Not surprisingly given the level of detail provided (especially in passages where combat actions are being described temporally and spatially) the authors have utilized both a great deal of primary (e.g., after-action reports, unit war diaries, etc.) and secondary (e.g., researched works of other historian/authors) sources. Unfortunately for the reader/student Graham and Bidwell give only a rough idea of what their primary sources were and provide only a 'selected' bibliography. In this regard the reader/student needs to trust the research of the authors' as one cannot easily verify statements. Yet, the depth of topic discusion is truly impressive and the serious will not be disappointed (as long as the aforementioned caveat is taken into account).
"Tug of War" spans a little over 400 pages and is separated into eight sections, each dedicated to particular periods of action in the Italian theater, usually temporally, but also spatially (geographically). The very first two sections of the book, I-Soft Target and II-Salerno are focused on the 'why' (section I) and initial 'how' (section II) the Italian Theater of Operations came into existence in late 1943. After a relatively short section dedicated to the Salerno-Anzio inter-period (section III), the authors present a 99 pp. section (IV) dedicated to the Anzio landings and subsequent bloodletting to defend (Allied) and regain (German) the bridgehead. Not surprisingly given the historical importance and interest in this particular action, this section is extremely well done. Section V gives a discusion of the period after the long Anzio stalemate to the planning (section VI) and initiation of Operation DIADEM, the final thrust out of the Anzio and Cassino areas to Rome (section VII). These last two sections are particularly interesting since the Anzio action often overshadows all that follows in many accounts of the Italian campaigns. The final section (proper) of the book deals with the final battles (still very bloody) aimed at finally breaking the German resistance in Italy after the fall of Rome to the end of hostilities. As was true of the previous two sections, this final section provides much material for student rumination. All in all the depth of coverage throughout the book is quite impressive and the serious will certainly not be disappointed. The remainder of the book (minus the final six pages) gives a chronology of events in the theatre; reference sources, bibliography (again not done for ease of re-researching), and chapter notes; and an index of military units and formations.
If there is a major criticism of "Tug of War" it would be its oft difficult readability. One could easily imagine a case where two contributing authors might have widely differing styles and thus provide a significant challenge to an editor(s) to smooth out the prose. When reading "Tug of War" this is exactly the feeling one gets. In expository passages and portions where the authors provide background or post-battle analysis the prose flows quite well and readers should have no problems having their attention maintained. In contrast, when combat is described, either temporal or spatial in nature, the prose is very dry and encyclopedic; dare this review say 'aseptic', to borrow a term from his own field of training. It is not hard to imagine that one author contributed the majority of the very first styles while the other contributed the latter. However these differences arose it makes for often difficult reading. This is likely to turn off most less serious readers, and maybe even some more serious.
In the end "Tug of War" is a solid piece of historiography that is deep in research but suffers from two differing writing styles (whether a direct result of dual authorship or not) that were simply not edited more smoothly. 4.5 stars for historical content, 2.5 stars for readability - 3.5 stars total.
*Note: This is a review of the hardback version of Graham and Bidwell's book.
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