The Heat of Battle: The 16th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry��The Italian Campaign, 1943-1945. - Review - book review

The Heat of Battle: The 16th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry--The Italian Campaign, 1943-1945. By Peter Hart. Leo Cooper, 1999. 224 Pages. $30.00.

The Italian campaign of World War II--from the Salerno landings in September 1943 until its successful conclusion in May 1945--was a long, grim grind through inhospitable, rugged terrain that permitted the highly skilled German enemy to defend in depth. It was a difficult, challenging infantryman's campaign, requiring small units with good leadership, superb training, effective discipline, and high morale.

One of the many Allied units that fought in Italy was the British Army's 16th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry (DLI). Organized after the 1940 Dunkirk debacle, the 16th DLI deployed to North Africa in January 1943 and experienced its baptism of fire the following month at the Battle of Sedjenane. The 16th DLI, as an element of the British 46th Division, was in the second wave assaulting the Salerno beachhead on 9 September 1943. After footslogging its way up the Italian Peninsula, fighting through the interminable misery of ridges, rivers, rain, and mud, the 16th DLI participated in the breaking of the heavily defended Gothic Line. In December 1944, to fill the vacuum caused by the German withdrawal from Greece, the 16th DLI and other units were airlifted to the vicinity of Athens and soon afterward became embroiled in counterinsurgency operations. The battalion returned to Italy in mid-April 1945, but the war in Europe ended before it could be committed again to battle.

In 1986--40 odd years after the end of World War II--more than 200 former war-time DLI soldiers began recording their combat reminiscences in a collaborative program with the renowned Imperial War Museum. Editor Peter Hart, Oral Historian at the museum, chose "some of the most evocative extracts from those 30 interviews that concerned the 16th Battalion DLI in the Italian Campaign of 1943-1945 and linked them together within a broad historical context." These personal vignettes of combat in Italy highlight the thoughts, fears, trials, and tribulations of officers and enlisted soldiers of all ranks in the battalion, from privates to the battalion commander.

Oral histories, while frequently interesting and thought provoking, need to be read and assessed with a critical eye. The passage of four decades can have a significant effect upon recollections, with memories becoming tainted, embellished, or selective. The author should have provided more "contextual" background information and comprehensive transitions between accounts, and better identified individuals and places mentioned in the various accounts. The book is lavishly illustrated, and five maps supplement the text.

The Heat of Battle describes, through its transcription of oral accounts of combat participants, perceptions of the reality of combat in the somewhat neglected Italian campaign. It also provides considerable insight into the human element of leadership--including fear, fatigue, and morale--and the dynamics of an Allied infantry battalion at war. This is an interesting and worthwhile book, a fitting tribute to those 16th DLI soldiers who overcame all obstacles in pursuit of victory.

COPYRIGHT 2000 U.S. Army Infantry School
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group