BACKWATER WAR

The Allied campaign in Italy, 1943-1945. A year before the much-heralded second front was opened in Normandy in 1944, the Allies waged a campaign in Sicily and Italy - an assault that was marked by intra-Allied argument and dissent from beginning to end. Winston Churchill favoured scrapping the Normandy invasion entirely while focusing on Europe's soft underbelly while the Americans rejected any plan that relied solely on a southern option. This is the story of the backwater war that resulted, a fierce, drawn-out campaign that began with the invasion of Sicily, continued with the landings at Salerno and Anzio in Italy, and included the controversial bombing of Monte Cassino.