Air War Over Italy

by Andrew Brookes

Although the campaign through Italy is perhaps overshadowed by the more dramatic battles in France and on the Eastern Front, it was a crucial phase of the war, forcing Hitler's Italian allies out of the war and tying huge numbers of men and vast quantities of German equipment down at a time when Axis needs were at their greatest elsewhere. From the first landings at Sicily, through the allied landings in southern Italy and the war of attrition as the Allies marched northwards to the surrender of the Italian forces and the ultimate German capitulation, Allied air power was to be of crucial importance. This book is a comprehensive narrative to the conflict from 1943 until the final German surrender of 1945. Drawn from official sources and from detailed research, the book emphasises the importance of the air war to the ultimate Allied success. The well-informed text is complemented by a superb selection of historic photographs illustrating the various types of aircraft involved in the campaign and of the campaign itself.

160 pages, Hardcover

First published January 6, 2000

About the author

Andrew J. Brookes

Reviews

[Robert Hepple · Rating 3 out of 5]

Published in 2000, 'Air War Over Italy' is an account of the military air operation over Italy during WW2, concentrating mainly on the event going forward from the invasion of Sicily in July 1943. As has been said by others, much of the text discusses the Allied air operations - this is not surprising, as mentions of Italian and German air operations decrease rapidly as their available assets are wiped out. The campaigns related lend themselves to quite linear reporting, so this is an informative and uncomplicated read with some terrific illustrations. On the down side, there are masses of typos and errors in technical detail, and whilst this leaves the historical issues unaffected I found it really irritating.

[Andrew Daniels · Rating 3 out of 5]

Its good as far these kind of 'blow-by-blow' war accounts go

Its purely one-sided, it should be called "The ALLIED Air War over Italy" as it seems to only draw on the Allied side of information and none or little from the Axis side, as if these records were less available or something

I enjoyed it enough, and it would be of interest to a WW2 fanatic, but not to any casual reader