Greg, a sincere thank you for mentioning the Italian campaign. Lady Astor called our Canadian troops there the D-Day Dodgers, who fought with our Allies for a year from Sicily up the boot to Rome two days before D-Day, the US/Canada Devil's Brigade first into the city. I've written on it extensively.
They were the most intense and costly battles ever fought by Canadian soldiers. Allied infantry casualties were greater in Italy than entire Northwest Europe campaign, Italy's natural defences of rivers and mountains crossways the country. My wife's paintings of the Liri campaign are slated for national tour.
We go back frequently to Cassino and Liri battlefields, know the locals who remember it well. The Germans fought magnificently in retreat, their cemetery a mile or so east of Cassino so beautiful its architect must have been a poet.
Less said about Clark the better. The French North Africa corps were the real heroes on the offensive to get into Rome, Poles in a class of their own, usually on right of Canadians throughout the war, Italy and Normandy particularly.
PM if I can help your research. One of Nancy's paintings is B24s bombing Cassino. An honorary member of the Devil's Brigade living at Ceprano near Monte Cassino is a dear friend, knows every inch of their astonishing campaign.
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