The Fortress: A Diary of Anzio and After

by Raleigh Trevelyan

'A remarkable record - vivid, modest, intelligent and unusually frank.' Harold Nicolson

'It rings true in every sentence.' Bernard Fergusson

In Jan 1944, Allied forces landed at Anzio and Nettuno on the eastern coast of Italy in the attempt to skirt the German lines and secure the passage to Rome. Success depended upon the element of surprise, but the landings stalled and the Allied soldiers found themselves hemmed in at the beachhead in what become known as the Battle of Anzio.

The environment was sodden and humid, and the fighting intense. It was into this desperate situation that Raleigh Trevelyan, then a twenty-year-old subaltern, found himself leading his platoon, right to the most dangerous, forward position, known as 'the Fortress'.

The resulting account, based on Trevelyan's diaries of the time, is one of the most eloquent records of close combat and of the relentless horror of modern warfare written. In direct, intimate prose, it describes the lives, and deaths, of ordinary men, and is a poignant testimony of innocence eroded by the awfulness of war.

Genres: Nonfiction, Military History, History

223 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1972

About the author

Born in the Andaman Islands in 1923, Trevelyan moved to England at the age of eight when he was sent to school there. He became an author after a brief career in merchant banking and now lives in London and Cornwall.

Reviews

[Marc · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is really a book in two parts: the author's experiences in the battles around Anzio and the author's recuperation after being wounded at Anzio. That being said, the former is much more interesting than the latter. Author Trevelyan is very adept at describing the wretched conditions he and his fellow Green Howards were faced with at Anzio, and he's provided a few hand-drawn maps of certain positions as well which really help the reader understand the landscape better. There is humor and action in his wartime tale, but this all changes after he is wounded and sent to Naples to recover. The book then becomes a parade of different escapades he has with various and sundry fellow soldiers and Italian civilians. After grinding through a fair portion of the author's moping around, I started skipping much of the narrative and only returned to it once he's sent back to the front in the Liri Valley. So, you've been warned that the book isn't all combat action.

You will definitely need to be up on your horticultural knowledge as Trevelyan seems to have an encyclopedic knowledge of flowers and references to dozens of different types are sprinkled throughout the book. I have no clue what most of them look like as it became too much of a chore to keep looking them up. There's also a heavy dose of 1940's British slang to deal with, but that's a bit easier to understand when the context of the statement(s) is read fully.

All in all, a pretty good book which started really well and then petered out in my opinion.

[Erik Empson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really 3.5 stars. The first part of this book is quite exciting, showing the realities of close-quarter combat in a loggerhead battle that resulted from poor strategy and the failure to exploit an initial advantage during the Allied landing at Anzio and Nettuno.
The middle part of the book is rather dull and annoying. The author is wounded and convalesces in Naples and Sorrento. He becomes infatuated with a nurse. He spends the time socialising with well-to-do families. This is all rather jejune, although it does put in quite stark relief the fighting. He was leading a platoon of twenty-seven men at the tender age of twenty. Though a bit irritating, it does show the extent to which the war to the inexperienced was seen as something like a game - cowboys and indians I think the author says at one point - until its harsh realities sank in.
The last section of the book has him fighting again near Arezzo. He is once again injured, the suggestion being quite badly, but he doesn't say.
The book is a very useful insight into the realities of the fighting in the area, the difficulty of the terrain and the somewhat ad hoc and ex temporalised tactics used. At times it is fascinating, at times touching, especially when he recounts the loss of his friends. The author is honest, admitting the errors he made that led to the deaths of individuals he was leading, and sincere.
All in all worth the read.

[T. Fowler · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a short but exceptionally literate memoir of a young 20-year-old British officer who kept a detailed diary of his first experiences in war when he was deployed to the Anzio beachhead in March 1944. Somehow he manages to keep this diary on a daily basis, recording ever minor detail of his days leading an infantry platoon. Fortunately he arrives when the front line is static and the fighting is much like that of the First World War. But then his good fortune ends when his unit finally launches an attack as part of the breakout, and he is wounded. The middle section of the book deals with his time first in a hospital, first in Naples and then in a convalescent home in Sorrento. This part is very much like a travelogue where, despite the war going on nearby, he spends many days and nights at dinners and parties at Capri with local high society who seem to be living as if a war never happened. When he is fully recovered from his wound, he returns to the front and, during fighting in central Italy is again wounded. His diary ends here. The refreshing part of the book is his clear admission of how young he was to lead soldiers and how his youthful foolishness led to the deaths or wounding of many of his men, as well as to his own injuries.

[José Van Rosmalen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dit boek is in het Nederlands verschenen onder de titel ‘ De vesting van Anzio’. Het is geschreven door een jonge Britse soldaat die in 1944 in Italië tegen de Duitsers vocht en daarbij ook gewond raakte. Hij hield een dagboek bij van wat hij meemaakte. Na het strijdtoneel moest hij revalideren voor hij opnieuw in actie kon komen. Hij had een uitstekend observatievermogen en hij kon ook goed schrijven. Hij was in 1923 in India geboren en in 1944 voerde hij een commando aan in een gevaarlijke strijd in bergachtig gebied in Italië. Tijdens zijn revalidatie kwam hij de Italiaanse schrijver Alberto Moravia tegen, bekend van onder meer ‘Vrouwen van Rome’.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

A visceral and intensely immediate account of a British officer in combat in the Anzio bridgehead during WWII. The story of his convalescence from wounds sustained and the odd world of the rear area so close to combat operations is very interesting as well making this a valuable document from the Italian theatre.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you want to know what it felt like to be a British soldier at the Anzio beachhead in 1944 - if you want to see the tracer bullets, feel the crump of shells, smell decomposing livestock, know the despair of being unable to rescue a badly wounded comrade - this is your book. I have read several other books by Raleigh Trevelyan, and have always found him to have the gift of graceful yet realistic writing; writing that puts you almost perfectly into whatever landscape is being described.

[Jon Wort · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent account for a young officer during the siege of Anzio. I picked it up when my flight was delayed and I finished it before I returned home. A great account and well worth reading.