Another excellent volume by James Holland. The author has the superb ability to write about the effects of military combat upon both officer and the common soldier in a very humane way. As a writer the full details of the Sicily campaign are explored in this volume from the planning to its completion in mid August 1943. As Holland reminds us, the invasion of Sicily was to act as a prelude to the eventual invasion of Western Europe. As a result Holland stresses the need for overall cooperation of the different armed force for a successful invasion. The author is critical of some airborne operations that proved to be a fiasco.. the book is also to be credited for its superb maps that detail the progression of the Sicily Campaign. This is a most positive contribution to World War II historiography. I look forward to the future works by James Holland.

Was given this doc for an honest review.

I read this book months ago but have gotten so far behind on my reviews. I found this book to be very good in that the author gives you some of the German’s side as well as Italians' side. First, let me point out that this operation has been repeated over and over many times with many military people saying that it was unnecessary. I for one am not an expert but this operation was vital to all of the other ones that would come afterward. We had not done any amphibious landings, nor any paratrooper drops which were both done in this operation. Not all went as planned but was able to be worked out for the next ones and also would help for D-Day. Though people thought this was a failure they still took the island in less time than was expected. Saying that Germans were allowed to escape or leave is nothing different than when troops were told to stop when they got to the border of France and hundreds of German troops were able to fight another day in the Bulge.
Overall I found this to be a very good book and if you are into history worth the read.

This is another good contribution by Holland to the WWII catalogue. He does a great job fleshing out the various personalities at the head of the armies involved. There are times when he can get bogged down in battle minutiae, but it's probably easier for military historians and buffs to picture the events unfolding. I like Holland's accessible writing style and grasp of the history of an often overlooked campaign.

Great read! There are many books on the battles in World War Two and specifically in Italy, but, the author presents it the points of views in the key players: The Germans, the British and the Americans! It is interesting to read what all the players were experiencing simultaneously during this campaign! I recommend Sicily ‘43 by James Holland for all history enthusiasts of the Second World War. Kudos to the author!

This is a great book/account of the Sicilian Campaign of WWII! It won't be for everyone....it's quite a comprehensive account, & uses a lot of those country's involved spelling & ID of their military's groups. There are a lot of names/players, from several countries involved.....so there is a lot to keep track of. It actually was kind of slow reading thru the 1st 1/3 of the book, while I adjusted to all the nomenclature & geography......but then it took off! At that point, I'd become more familiar to this story & it was actually quite interesting & easy to march thru it with the campaign..... so much so that I stayed up into the night reading! It was/is especially interesting to me, as my father was a part of The Big Red One.....joining them in N.Africa & all along thru Germany.
It's a very thorough book, the Postscript at the end tells where many of the players thru out the book ended up after the war & there is a Timeline at the end that gives the date/time that events took place. This will be for those interested in history, military history......really is a great account of a part of the war that is often overlooked. I really learned a lot & am glad for having read it!
I received this e-ARC from publisher Grove Atlantic via NetGalley, after offering to read it & post my own fair/honest review.

I have been trying to read more of a variety of genres and have found myself really interested in World War II as of late. The author of this book provided information on the importance of Sicily to this war and provided me with a wealth of information that I had never heard before.

I found this book to be well researched, but I did not enjoy nearly as much as several other reviewers. I found the author's writing style to be somewhat ponderous and bogged down in an abundance of facts that interrupted the flow of the book. It covers a crucial piece of World War II history with the invasion of Sicily. While it was not an overly enjoyable read for me, it may be for others..

I received a free Kindle copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon and my nonfiction book review blog. I also posted it to my Facebook page

An ARC from Net Galley was provided to me

Excellent book on the 36 day battle before the battle in June of 1944

This was in effect the laboratory that the capture of France was tested.

Fierce fighting, great example of the warrior spirit! Excellent book

I gave this to my husband to read because he is a military history buff. He was skeptical that he would learn anything new. However, he is loving this book and keeps telling me about incidents he hadn't heard about. He especially likes the quotations from memoirs written by individuals from different sides of the campaign. A definite purchase for our library.

A great book on the first allied major invasion of the war. The personal accounts from both sides helped to illustrate the action and the thoughts and decisions by those participating in the action. An engrossing read for those WW2 enthusiasts. If you want to learn about this campaign, this is definitely a must read book.

Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest opinion. This book was good. It was about a topic I never knew: Sicily during WW2.

James Holland's "Sicily '43", published by Grove Atlantic, was recently provided to me in the form of an ARC. I am pleased to say that I just finished my assessment, and I am impressed with his accomplishment. To begin with, as
Holland stresses, the invasion of Sicily was a groundbreaking achievement during World War II in that it was an
amphibious assault on a heavily fortified corner of Feastung Europa. As such, it provided all participants, Allies and Axis alike, with a foretaste of the main event which would occur in Normandy little more than a year later. The insights here, to include a sort of revisionist approach to the events surrounding the invasion of Sicily, inasmuch as many earlier histories have been rather hard on the Allies and their manifest failures in the campaign without giving, in Holland's view (and I think he is right here) full weight to the enormous obstacles that had to be overcome as well as what was at stake should failure occur, are useful to anyone with an interest in World War II in Western Europe. What is more, Holland raises these points through a thoroughly entertaining narrative structured around the lives of many participants in the battle, both well known and prominent and unknown and seldom cited. He cloaks the great movements of huge armies, not in abstract terms of which units did what (at least not exclusively) but always with an eye towards what the battle was like for those who experienced it, from ""great commanders" to the often forgotten owners of the real estate being fought over and the many disparate participants in the battle. His narrative is even handed, and because it is, the humanity of all concerned shines through all of the ideological presumptions that some brought to the table. In these pages, you encounter Mafia Dons and aces of the Luftwaffe as well as their opponents in the air, on land and on the sea. It is a remarkable achiievement and goes far to illuminate what actually happened on this island and what it meant.

This was definitely an interesting and informative read for me. I’m not much of a history buff but this novel was absolutely excellent. Go and try it out!

Another great book by James Holland. Sicily 43 starts out as Americans are pushing forward in Norther Africa and driving the Germans out and back up to Italy. The next part of the book takes the reader into the process of getting the men and material ready for the next big assault. There were several options but the final decision was Sicily. With the decision made the plan was worked out and put into place. The details of places, military personnel and different battles can get a little overwhelming but if you read a chapter or two and let the material sink in you will not have any problems. This book is not to be rushed, it is to be savored and enjoyed so take your time. As you read the various battles and the actual invasion and read how there were so many mistakes on both sides you wonder how anyone won. Gliders went down, friendly fire took down several plans, paratroopers were dropped in the wrong area and landing parties ended up on the wrong beach. But with massive amounts of men and material the out come was never in doubt. It was not always smooth sailing, several battles were lost due to poor planning, bad execution or not getting the right troops were they needed to be leaving other groups hanging out to dry. The third part of the book takes the reader from the turning point in the battle for Sicily until the end. Things began to stable out with more tanks, trucks and other material finally working its way into the field and then off of the beach, the air battles had left the Germans headed up to Italy and more men finally made it into the war.
This is a very good book and if you have any interest in WW2, the first invasion of this size (well before Normandy) or just want to get a good detail of what the down in the dirt soldiers went through during the war this is a book for you. Read it, enjoy it and learn from it. The research and detail is amazing.

I was excited to receive an ARC of this book because my grandpa was involved in the Sicily invasion but I knew very little about it (my other grandpa took part in D-Day which seems to get much more attention). I don't read many military histories because I find it's easy for them to become bogged down with names and numbers and lists of maneuvers -- not the case in "Sicily '43". Holland does a great job covering the causes and effects of the 1943 Sicily campaign while providing a comprehensive history of the invasion and its key battles. I appreciated his commitment to bringing forward individuals' stories instead of simply following units and well-known commanders. I also liked Holland's inclusion of a brief history of Sicily and his explanations of the culture and wartime experiences of Sicilian civilians (including the shadowy presence of the mafia). While I can't speak to how much of this material is new due to my lack of knowledge of the subject, I did find his arguments convincing and I think any reader interested in WWII would enjoy this book.