The Mules of Monte Cassino: The Ground Level Truth About the Most Brutal and Unknown Battle of World War II - Paperback

by Jim Defilippi (Author)

Sacrifice, slaughter, and stupidity.The Battle for Monte Cassino, in southern Italy during the bitter winter of 1943-1944, was the most gruesome, spine-wilting, pointlessly devastating battle of America's Twentieth Century, perhaps in all of America's history. The enormity of the mistakes of Monte Cassino was misunderstood and overlooked then and remains under-reported and ignored to this day. Three hundred and fifty thousand dead soldiers, along with no accurate count of the civilian dead, for no reason other than the hubris and egos of men with golden stars pinned on their shoulders, hobnobbing with Popes, Presidents and Prime Ministers. Priceless and irreplaceable art treasures were destroyed for no better reason than incompetence and impatience. Military advantage gained from all of this: nothing. This is the story of that battle told from the fox holes and from the blood-stained rivers, with the hands of wounded and drowning comrades clutching at your legs as you try to swim back to shore. One survivor of the devastation said, "We were all of us mules."

Author Biography

Jim DeFilippi's books have been called: "Suspenseful, often hilarious." Newsday "Excellently paced and imaginatively told." Publishers Weekly "Surprisingly fresh." Booklist "Moving, funny, ultimately tragic." Philadelphia Enquirer "Precise and pithy." Library Journal "...with a jaunty tone and unexpected twists." Library Journal "Colorful and often hilarious." Austin Chronicle "Genuinely unsettling." Seven Days "Sometimes lyrical and sometimes brutally concrete." Seven Days "Grimly horrific to absurdly comic." Mystery Scene Magazine "A wonderful book." George V. Higgins (The Friends of Eddie Coyle) "Terrifically entertaining." Howard Frank Mosher (Stranger in the Kingdom) "Terrific...superbly crafted." Cleveland Plain Dealer "Colorful and often hilarious." Austin Chronicle "So sensitive it becomes universal." Cyber Oasis "Emotional. Intense. Nostalgic. Real." About.com