THE SICILY CAMPAIGN

THE SICILY CAMPAIGN 

By William F. Buckingham &

Dudley Giles.

On opening the book, it was with much sadness to read a message that Bill Buckingham had sadly passed away before the book's completion.

I have enjoyed all of his books on the second world war and was most excited when I learnt that this was to be his next subject. 

Very sad news indeed.

                ____________

For a campaign that is mentioned so often in second world war books, there seems to be very few published works that concentrate solely on Sicily. 

Lasting less than forty days, this important campaign seems to have been somewhat ignored in post-war history books.

Ths narrative begins by describing Operation Torch and the invasion of North Africa in late 1942. It would be during this period that Operation HUSKY and the invasion of Sicily was finally given the green light after much heated debate.

The D-Day for HUSKY was set for the night of 9-10th July 1943.

In the build-up to the invasion, there are several chapters concentrating on the planning from the point of those airborne and naval forces that were to be involved. The book also reveals what those invading would face in the way of defending Axis forces. 

Whilst all the planning was going on, an intricate deception plan was in full swing to deceive the Axis as to where an invasion would actually happen.

Once HUSKY is underway the narrative focuses on the different forces that landed by sea or air and how over the coming weeks the Allies would force the Axis forces to withdraw.

There is a great attention to detail throughout and personally, I prefer a narrative like this explaining what happened and where, rather than being over reliant on first-hand accounts. 

We end with the German's evacuation to the Italian mainland , of which the controversy around still lives on today and is covered in the book.

In her dedication to her late husband, Aileen Buckingham wrote that Bill, 'always preferred to explain things fully, rather than leave it unsaid'. 

This comprehensive narrative is certainly an indepth and well overdue military study of a campaign deserving of more literature. 

It is an excellent and thought provoking read, with the added poignancy of knowing that this is also Bill's final book.

The hardback book is now available and published by Amberley. I thank them for this review copy.