The title, which hints at the poetry that breathes life into this true story of the Allied invasion of the beach at Anzio, Italy, in 1944, comes from a passage within the book told by a man assigned burial duty: Quickly, the mound of earth disappears. A friend has gone. He has drunk his vessel of sadness. His battle is stilled.”
Woodruff’s technique is to show that bloody struggle through the eyes of soldiers, statesmen, and civilians involved. Privileged viewers from afar, we see officers shooting pool before a major conference; we come close, peer into the thoughts of a corporal just before a bullet takes the top off his head; as if we were walking past, we stop for a moment to watch a poker game among enlisted men; we see an ambassador fretting over artifacts and men riding headlong into a German machine-gun nest.
In Woodruff’s war there are no human villains, only madness, an abstract insanity, a waste of such huge proportions as to sober even a giddy man. A war.
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William Woodruff served with the First British Infantry Division during World War II and landed with his unit in the initial wave of the Anzio invasion. After the war he returned to Oxford University and, later, earned his doctorate of philosophy at Nottingham. He is now Graduate Research Professor in Economic History at the University of Florida.
Martin Blumenson was formerly Harold Keith Johnson Professor of Military History at the Army War College. He is the author of two volumes of The Patton Papers.
Here in unvarnished but riveting truth, is the mixture of panic, danger, dirt, unthinking heroism, comradeship, despair and hope that make up the life of the fighting man in action.” George Riley, London Evening News
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Book Description Hardback. Condition: Good. The book has been read but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact and the cover is intact. Some minor wear to the spine. Seller Inventory # GOR003137421
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Fair. 1st Edition. Published by Chatto and Windus of London in 1970. Hardcover 1st edition. Book condition: Very Good. Brown cloth boards with silver titles to spine. Inside pages are in good order apart from some darkening of the edges of the pages. Dust Jacket condition: Fair. Jacket has seen heavy use and wear. See photograph. Dims: 220mm x 145mm x 23mm. 192 pages. Seller Inventory # 003260
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. First Edition. London: Chatto & Windus, 1970. Lightly worn first edition in a very good and lightly age-toned dustjacket. The moving story of the men who sailed down the Clyde and were sent to the beaches north of Anzio during World War II in order to capture the Alban Hills and Rome. Black hardcover, map endpapers, illustrated dustjacket. Light shelfwear and minor corner bumping, good hinges, sound text block, brief gift notation on half-title, pages otherwise clean and unmarked. The mylar protected dustjacket is not priceclipped and has some minor age-darkening and foxing to the rear panel and spine, edge rubbing, effectively no chips or tears. First Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good/Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Seller Inventory # 027389
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