Cassino 1944: Breaking the Gustav Line
By (Author) Ken Ford
Illustrated by Howard Gerrard
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Osprey Publishing
25th April 2004
United Kingdom
Tertiary Education
Non Fiction
Second World War
Modern warfare
Battles and campaigns
940.54215622
Paperback
96
Width 184mm, Height 248mm, Spine 8mm
240g
The battle for Cassino was probably the most bitter struggle of the entire Italian campaign. The dominating peak of Montecassino crowned by its magnificent but doomed medieval monastery was the key to the entire Gustav Line, a formidable system of defences that stretched right across the Italian peninsula. This position completely dominated the Liri valley and Route 6, the strategically vital road to Rome. Between January and May 1944 the Allies struggled amid inhospitable terrain and dreadful weather to dislodge the German paratroops that tenaciously defended the vital mountaintop. Ken Fords book details the dramatic events of the battle to break the Gustav Line.
Ken Ford was born in Hampshire in 1943. He trained as an engineer and spent almost thirty years in the telecommunications industry. He now spends his time as an author and a bookseller specialising in books in military history. He has written a number of books on various Second World War subjects. Ken now lives in Southampton. Howard Gerrard studied at the Wallasey School of Art and has been a freelance designer and illustrator for over 20 years. He has won both the Society of British Aerospace Companies Award and the Wilkinson Sword Trophy and has illustrated a number of books for Osprey including Campaign 69: Nagashino 1575 and Campaign 72: Jutland 1916. Howard lives and works in Kent.