The Day of Battle, 2nd in the trilogy, I never thought I could finish it!

This review is from: The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 (Liberation Trilogy) (Paperback)

Suddenly I've become my Uncle Camillo Pizzeri in the 5th Army, moving from North Africa to Sicily, marching toward Rome. All the battles lure me back to the headlines of the time, Anzio, Monte Cassino, covering me once again with tears and the horrors of that war. I hear inside me a voice asking..."How did he survive with no visible injuries? How did he come home smiling and loving again?"

During the trek from North Africa, toward the Italian boot, I wanted to go home, just as the soldiers must have longed to go home. I longed to have the author break the monotony and plodding battles of war with glimpses of life in the States, but, had he done that he would have ruined the story. It took me months of battles to come to this realization, and months of slow reading to get through the horrors of the battles. I was battle fatigued, my body was bathed in mud and gore. My heart yearned for peace, the beauty of nature, the love of man. Suddenly, we were on the verge of entering Rome and then we blasted onto the beaches of Normandy!

The Germans famous for scorched earth, debated over doing that to Rome, as they withdrew. Hitler in his masterful mind figured out that if he destroyed the masterpieces and bridges of Rome the world would turn against him....???? The murder of millions cast as trivia in a World War, obviously paled in relation to the destruction of Rome??? How incongruous!

Right now I am reading Rome: A Cultural, Visual, and Personal History by Hughes, Robert 1st (first) Edition [Hardcover(2011)]. What a gorgeous city! The glory of the spectacular artists make it one of the places on earth we should all visit for the love of history, culture and art. We have to give thanks that Hitler in his madness did not destroy Rome.

The Italians exploded with joy as the Allied forces brought the end of German occupation. Tributes were everywhere, one old man kept shouting, probably the only word he knew in English, "Weekend, weekend!" As the book comes to its end, the image of Italian women blanketing the dead bodies of Allied troops with irises and roses sticks in my mind, long into the dark night of a war not easily forgotten. In my head as I thought Irises and roses, this song came to me... Jack Jones ~ Lollipops & Roses LP Vinyl Record (65842)

A true reader, will stick with this book thru the battles, because in the end, the story is told as it should be, enveloping the reader in war, with tiny glimpses of the world around the war, which exist almost out of reality. When the Italians throw open their shutters and shout for joy....as the Allied troops roll into their towns, I said to myself where were they , how did they survive? How did they get in their pajamas at night, never knowing if they would awaken tomorrow? The Italians said, "Why did it take you so long?"

When you read this book, and suffer through the battles as I did, you know the answer to the questions that will haunt you long after you finish the story.