A Classy Page Turner - Rated 
I am writing this review at the end of Boxing Day - less than 48 hours after being given this book as a Christmas gift - and I have finished it. This may say something about my dull Yule, but it is more to do with this book. I gobbled up nearly 400 pages saying to myself 'one my chapter...one more chapter', and before I knew where I was, Christmas had gone and I'd finished the book! My wife knows that I like history, and I have read just about everything by Beevor, Holmes and Hastings, and I shall now do the same with Lloyd Clark. Anzio is just so readable, and like all good history it carries its research lightly. Brilliantly written, a captivating battle and above all, moving and highly atmospheric.
I couldn't put this book down! - Rated
I read this book in just two sittings. The hours just flew by. The story is just so compulsive that I had to find out what happened next. It is written in such a style that keeps the reader as interested in the charaters as much as the events. It just hooks you and reels the reader in. The story of Anzio is not one that I knew much about, but this was such an eye-opener that I can not believe that I had neglected WWII in Italy for so long. Anzio was an awful battle, and I did not realise how close the troops that landed on that coast near Rome in 1944 came to being pushed back in the Med. This was like a WWI battle using WWII weapons and tactics. Bloody, relentless and awesome. This is a first class book. Outstanding in every way. The author is a master story teller, but backs it up with detailed research. He just has a way of making military history not only educational, but a pleasure to read - which, as we all know, is not always the case. Outstanding.
Remarkable battle. Remarkable book - Rated
This is a military history book unlike any that I have ever read. I have never been so spellbound by any history as I have by this. I have to admit that I knew little of Anzio before reading this, but I was immediately drawn in by a fascinating campaign and this critical battle. I never knew that Italy, other than Monte Cassino, was such a dreadful slog. Anzio (I thought) was a sideshow, but this book reveals how central it was to both Allied strategy, and British prospects for the remaining months of the war. It was a hideous battle, like a lethal game of chess, taking in army, navy and airforce. The characters are so well sketched that I thought that I knew them by the end of this stout volume, and the scene setting and battle scenes are so vivid that I felt my heart pounding as I turned the pages. A page turner of a miltiary history book - that's a novelty - but that is exactly what this book is! The author is obviously something of a master of things military, the ease of his descriptions and telling little remarks about the plans, troops, battlefield, tactics and weaponry told me that, but he is also a master story teller. I am not to proud to say that I ended the book with a tear in my eye and sad that I had finished it. I am an avid reader but have never been prompted to write a review on Amazon before, but this book is just superb. Well done Lloyd Clark, next book please!
Brilliant. The book that we have been waiting for. - Rated
I have been waiting for a book on Anzio like this for some time. I have read others, but none are as accessible as this book by Lloyd Clark. The way in which the author provides strategic perspective, details of various operations and what it was like to fight in the battle is extremely useful. I cannot applaude Clark loudly enough for the way in which he interweaves the various elements of this sad but exciting story - land, sea, air, political, military, American, British, German, Italian, high command, fighting troops... This is a pacey book written with authority, balance and perspective - as you would expect with a lecturer from Sandhurst. I liked the author's emphasis on the human story as well. He has interviewed many interesting participants and used the diaries of many more. I rarely read military history and feel an emotional response to what I have read, but with this book I did. In short, it is brilliantly written. All of this and I haven't mentioned the Anzio story! An amazing tale of battles not only with the elements and the Germans, but also amongst the Allies commanders. A great story that needed to be told. Lloyd Clark has done an excellent job.
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