The River Battles: Canada’s Final Campaign in World War II Italy

by Mark Zuehlke

The Canadians called it the Promised Land. In late September 1944, the Emilia-Romagna plain before I Canadian Corps stretched to the far horizon—a deceptively wide-open space where the tanks could run free. Throughout British Eighth Army, hopes ran high that once it entered the plain, the Germans could be driven from Italy. As soon as the advance began, however, the plain’s true nature was revealed: the land was criss-crossed by rivers, canals and drainage ditches over which all bridges had been demolished.


With higher command urging haste, the Canadians entered a long and nightmarish series of battles to win crossings over each waterway, whose high banks provided the Germans with perfect defensive positions. Early fall rains caused rivers to spill their banks and transformed the countryside into the worst quagmire the soldiers had ever seen.


More than five months of battle followed, with weeks of hard fighting required to advance from one river to the next. Each month, conditions only worsened, and the casualty rates rose appallingly. As their comrades fell one by one, most soldiers sought merely to survive. Doing that much required every measure of stamina, courage and fighting skill they possessed.


The fifth and final Canadian Battle Series volume set in Italy, The River Battles tells the story of this campaign’s last and hardest months. In riveting detail and with his trademark “you-are-there” style, Mark Zuehlke shines a light on this forgotten chapter of Canada’s World War II experience.

Genres: History

480 pages, Hardcover

Published May 2, 2020

About the author

On January 1, 1981, Mark Zuehlke walked away from a journalism career to pursue magazine and book writing fulltime. He has never looked back. In 1992, Mark published his first book—Magazine Writing From the Boonies (co-authored with Louise Donnelly)—and now concentrates almost exclusively on writing of books.

Fascinated by Canada’s military heritage, Mark first set to writing about the role Canadians played in World War II after discussing the Battle of Ortona with several veterans in a Royal Canadian Legion following a Remembrance Day Ceremony in Kelowna, B.C. Discovering no book had been written on this pivotal battle, Mark decided to fill that gap. Ortona: Canada’s Epic World War II Battle was the result. The book’s success encouraged him to develop The Canadian Battle Series, which documents the Canadian World War II experience and has resulted in his being declared by Jack Granatstein as the nation’s leading popular military historian.

Mark is also an award winning mystery writer, whose popular Elias McCann series has garnered much critical praise. Set in storm-swept west coast Vancouver Island village of Tofino, the series follows the investigations of reluctant community coroner Elias McCann. Hands Like Clouds, the debut title in this series, won the Crime Writers of Canada’s Arthur Ellis Award for the 2000 Best First Novel and the third instalment, Sweep Lotus, was nominated for the 2004 Arthur Ellis Best Novel.

When not writing, this Victoria, British Columbia resident can often be found tinkering around the Fernwood heritage house he shares with partner and fellow writer Frances Backhouse. He enjoys hiking, backpacking, cycling, kayaking, travelling, and cooking.

Reviews

[Mark Adkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mark Zuehlke's book "The River Battles" is a continuation of his telling of the history of the Canadian Army battles in Italy during World War Two. Using historical records he tells the history from the point of view of the soldiers and makes it interesting, not just dry dates and statistics. With first hand accounts and referencing unit histories, the struggles the soldiers went through come to life. He does a good job of miking the issues the Generals went through as well as the Pte and other ranks.

Now admittedly this type of book is not for anyone, but for the people that enjoy Canadian Military History this book is highly recommended. If you have not read any of the previous books that the author has written about the Italian campaign then I recommend you read them before this one, as this book deals with the end of the campaign (Spoilers, we won :) )

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another in Zuehlke's essential Canadian Battle Series on Canada's WW2 army battles. This is a hard read; the "D-Day Dodgers" in Italy by the time of these battles were relegated to a more-or-less backwater status after the recent landings on D-Day in northern France and Operation Dragon landings in the south. They were now receiving less supplies and fewer reinforcements for the heavy losses that still happened in Italy. There main purpose was to keep German divisions occupied so they wouldn't be sent north for the eastern and western fronts.
There is a lot of heroism here, and some stupid decisions by some leaders. It was a grinding series of slow advances across horrible ground in terrible weather.
As with all of the books in this series, I found it very useful to scan and print the maps to have at hand while reading, rather than constantly flipping to the front of the book.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting look at a part of the WWII I knew little about before hand. It was engaging in parts, descriptive, and seemed to make good use of historical sources. However the constant shifting between units, and levels from the soldier's view to the higher ranks in command gave the book a chaotic feeling that took me out of it at times and made it harder to follow.

[Tim Barron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read from a great Canadian author