The Battle of Sicily, How the Allies Lost Their Chance for Total Victory was written by Samuel W. Mitcham, Jr. and Friedrich von Stauffenberg and published in 1991by Orion Books of New York. This was the version I reviewed today. The ISBN of this particular book is 978-0517575253. It is a hardback book and is 367 pages. I purchased the book used from a seller on Amazon and paid $6.79 before taxes and shipping. I thought that was a pretty good bargain.

For those familiar with war history books, Samuel W. Mitcham is a name well known to the genre from both World War II and the Civil War books he has authored. There is a Wikipedia page with his bio and published works, so I won’t regurgitate it here. He has written over forty books. How many wrote on World War II I am not sure of, but as I find them, I pick them up.

Friedrich von Stauffenberg is the first cousin of Col. Count Claus von Stauffenberg, famous for the July 20 1944 plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. It appears from several sources that this is his only published written work.

The book is a chronological “walk-through” of the events just before the invasion of the island by the Americans and British in Operation Husky, and ending with the final days of the evacuation of the Germans and Italians in Operation Lehrgang by General Hans-Valentin Hube. The book concludes with an epilogue detailing the fates of the major German and Italian officers involved in the events of World War II in Sicily. The contents reads as follows:

1. The Great Blunder
2. Uneasy Allies
3. The Deteriorating Axis
4. The Defenders
5. Pantelleria, the Plan and the Air Battles
6. The Allies Approach
7. D-Day
8. Counterattack and Retreat
9. Primosole Bridge
10. Enter General Hube
11. Patton Breaks Loose
12. The Battles of Hauptkampflinie
13. The Allies Close In
14. Operation Lehrgang: A Panzer Corps Escapes

Mitcham covers the beginning to the end of the battle of Sicily in about 303 pages, and manages to keep the reader engrossed in the story from the Axis point of view (my opinion).

Other important aspects of the book for the history-buff are itemized below:
Sources & Notes: Nineteen pages of notes and source reference.
Bibliography: Seven pages of sources.
Appendixes: There are four, one with rank equivalents, and the others with OoB info.
Order of Battle: Yes! A timeline of the evolution of the Hermann Göring Panzer Unit, Italian 6th Army and the Allied 15th Army Group.
Maps: There is a map table of contents, and 18 maps are provided.
Pictures: The book has two inserts with about 34 pictures with information.
Index: The book contains a nine page index to reference specifics. Units and individuals appear to be well covered.

Overall I enjoyed this book. I started reading it knowing little about Sicily in World War II. I finished feeling a familiarity of this part of the war, who fought there, what the major skirmishes were and who the primary players were. I have at least three other books on this time and place to tackle in the coming months, and it will be easier to absorb all of the information after reading this book. I would recommend this book for anyone interested in learning the basics about the battle for Sicily and Operation Husky. At a little over three hundred pages, it is the right size to bring you up to speed. ( )