Day of Battle - Rick Atkinson

[Steindaddie]

I have just finished this fine book and am highly impressed. Rick Atkinson's Day of Battle The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944, is the 2nd in his Liberation Trilogy which started with An Army at Dawn, winner of a Pulitzer Prize. After winning such an award, a follow-up act is tough to do, but Atkinson scores again. He picks right up where we were left off and once again tells a powerful and moving story. As before, he explains the strategy, tactics, characters, and fighting in his easy to read but very intelligent style. The author is a living vocabulary lesson and I keep my dictionary at the ready, yet he never sounds high-handed or bogs one down in rambling dialogue.

 

Anyone desiring to know the true nature of the war in Italy should not miss Day of Battle.

 

I for one look forward to the last in his Trilogy.

 

Will

[Steindaddie]

The correct title is The Day of Battle.

 

Brain-to-finger disconnect.

 

Will

[SDC]

Just started it today, glad to hear it's good. I liked the Churchill quote, "we are all worms" but he thought himself a glow worm.

[tredhed2]

Except he covers only the years 1943-44, does not cover how the Gothic Line was finally cracked, why it was frontal assault on the Gothic Line instead of flanking movements/preventing German supplies from getting through, how the Appennines were bridged, and how the war was won in Italy in 1945. Many more shortcomings in this book when compared to his first.

[SDC]

As the son of a 10th Mountain Dvision trooper I'm certainly hoping he gives the Northern Appennines and Po campaigns their due in the third book.

[SDC]

Just noticed last night that in the Prologue when describing the visit to Wash DC by the Allied leadership, the author says that the Washington Nationals were playing. I'm no expert but isn't that a fairly new team?

[Oldcop]

This is off the point of the post . The Washington baseball team was the Nationals from 1905 to 1954 they were the Senators from 1955 to 1960. They moved to Minnesota and became the Twins in 1961. Dave

[DwightPruitt]

Except he covers only the years 1943-44, does not cover how the Gothic Line was finally cracked, why it was frontal assault on the Gothic Line instead of flanking movements/preventing German supplies from getting through, how the Appennines were bridged, and how the war was won in Italy in 1945. Many more shortcomings in this book when compared to his first.

 

I've read both Dawn and Day. Both weren't necessarily bad books, but basically lighter, more flowery versions of the Army Green Book accounts. Weighly-lite if you will. I think most of that is due to Atkinson being primarily a journalist rather than a historian. That's not a slam on journalists or Atkinson for that matter, because I think he is a very good journalist and his work on current military affairs is quite good.

 

I agree with tredhed2. Atkinson ends his story awkwardly and leaves much from the story of the Italian Campaign. I got the impression that Day was a rush-job with Atkinson trying to get from North Africa to the ETO.

[Steindaddie]

I admire Atkinson's historical approach and his honesty in the written word. For example: nowhere does he use the term "the definitive, best written account.." to describe his work. What he has done supremely well though, is put WW2 history where it should always have a place - on the Best-Seller list.

[DwightPruitt]

McDonald's sells a a lot of food, but I don't think many would describe it as fine dining.

 

Atkinson is better than Ambrose, and as I said, I think he's very good at current military operations- In the Company of Soldiers was very good. But, in both Day and Dawn he gets a lot of facts wrong. Here's a paragraph (page 339) from Dawn that I believe illustrates my point:

 

"A brief, howling sandstorm swept across the Tunisian plain early Sunday morning, February 14th. German sappers cinched bandannas across their noses and finished lifting the last American mines from the western mouth of Faid Pass. At four A.M. a bobbling procession of lights, almost ecclesiastical in grandeur, emerged from an olive grove east of the gap. Soldiers in black tunics tramped down Highway 13 carrying lanterns to guide more than a hundred tanks-a dozen Tigers among them- and as many infantry lorries and halftracks. Diesel stink and the creak of armor tracks filled the defile."

 

Ecclesiastical in grandeur? Good grief. There are several factual errors in the paragraph also. At that point in the African campaign, Panzer troops had pretty much abandoned the black uniform, which was never in widespread use in theater. According to historian Rich Anderson, who co-wrote Hitler's Last Gamble and who works for the Dupuy Institute with access to German records, there were exactly six, not twelve, Tigers present at Faid Pass that day. Then, the phrase "Diesel stink". Since all the German tanks, trucks and halftracks at Faid were powered by gasoline engines, where would the "diesel stink" come from?

 

Now, I agree that history doesn't have to be dry recitations of events, it must be at least accurate. None of the errors above make the book totally unreadable, but they are easily verifiable, and show me that Atkinson uses quite a bit of journalistic license to paint a picture in the readers mind.

[captaxe]

Good points by all.

 

Atkinson's two books to date are certainly well worth the read-- inaccuracies notwithstanding. He is taking an approach to the War in Europe very much like Bruce Catton did in his Civil War trilogy on the Army of the Potomac. He doesn't cover all the bases (as has been pointed out, he writes nothing of the actions in Italy after the fall of Rome, while Catton skipped some key campaigns of the Army of the Potomac), which, IMHO, leaves a lot for future historians to delve more deeply into.

 

My understanding is that his third and final volume will focus solely on the operations of the 1st/3rd/9th armies from D-Day to the surrender of Germany, so fans of the later Italian campaigns will need to look elsewhere.

[DwightPruitt]

He's not going to cover the 6th AG at all?

[irish]

I have listened to both of the Atkinson books on CD. I commute 1 hour each way to work and listening on disc is great. He did however cutoff the Italian campaign with the capture of Rome June 5, 1944 which closely coincided with the D-Day landings. I am sure the 3rd book in this series will begin in Normandy. I find his writing quite good. Goes in to some great detail on individual soldier experiences. He has a nice human and understandable approach to what at times can be a dry read. If you a looking for a comparable read on U.S Naval operations in the Pacific get "Sea of Thunder". This is a fairly new book. A couple of years old I believe. The authors name escapes me at the moment. A facinating and easy to follow account of an often confusing and rarely told story.

[captaxe]

He's not going to cover the 6th AG at all?

Dwight--

 

My mistake. I believe he will cover the 6th AG/Southern France/Vosges stuff as well, but it is A LOT of ground to cover in one volume.