Fifth Army in Italy, 1943–1945: A Coalition at War

by Ian Blackwell

The US Fifth Army first saw action during the Salerno Landings in September 1943. While commanded by US Lieutenant General Mark Clark, from the outset one of its two Corps was the X (British) Corps; the other V1 (US) Corps.The French Expeditionary Corps, the Brazilian Expeditionary Force, the South African Armoured Division, the Italian Co-Belligerent forces, formations from the New Zealand Corps and the 4th Indian Division, demonstrate the multi-national composition of Fifth Army.ClarkOCOs Fifth Army was itself part of the Fifteenth Army Group, commanded by Field Marshal Alexander. AlexanderOCOs light and diplomatic touch oiled the wheels of this uneasy arrangement but inevitably, there were tensions and disagreements that threatened success.The low priority accorded to Italy as compared with OVERLORD and NW Europe did not help matters. Seen as a backwater, crack units were taken away and insufficient resources allocated to the Italian Campaign. This combined with the tenacity of the Germans, the difficult terrain and the harsh climate caused real problems. Allied morale was at times particularly brittle and desertion rates worryingly high.This superbly researched book objectively examines the performance of Fifth Army against this complex and troublesome backdrop. The authorOCOs findings make for informative and fascinating reading."

446 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 2012

Reviews

[Carol Arce · Rating 3 out of 5]

I decided to read this book because my Father served in the Fifth Army in North Africa and Italy and that part of World War II received far less coverage than most other areas. However, as the title indicates and as the author points out in his introduction, the focus of this book is not tactical and readers looking to find out more about the "grittier end of the fighting" should look for other books. But, since I had this book in hand, I read it. It was a bit slow going in places, but certainly was enlightening as to problems that exist in a coalition army. Its the existence of such problems that led Churchill to say, "There is only one thing worse than fighting with allies-and that is fighting without them." The second part of the book, The Coalition at War, was more tactically focused and faster paced.
Along the same lines, Eisenhower, Patton, Montgomery, de Gaulle have been widely written about, but I had never read about Mark Clark. My Father, who served under Clark, had the highest regard for him, so it came as something of a shock to me to read all the criticism of him!
This book has not satisfied, but only whetted my appetite to know more about the Fifth Army in Italy and General Mark Clark.