Mason Lecture: Roger Cirillo, "Agony, Misery, and Heartbreak"

The General Raymond E. Mason Memorial Lecture Series and The National WWII Museum present:
Roger Cirillo
"Agony, Misery, and Heartbreak: The Ground War in Italy, January - June 1944"
April 14, 2011

[@californiadreamin8423]

Very interesting and very frank lecture, viewed in the comfort of my home, rather than my Dad who was a stretcher bearer in the 56 Division - The Black Cats- at Salerno, Mt Comino, the Garigliano , and Anzio.

[@palmierlover]

great conference!thank's from the grandson of a morroccan goumier!

[@Xenophon1]

"Agony, Misery, and Heartbreak"? As a Cav Scout from the 80's, we went up the first two. They kept us off Heartbreak because it killed people.

[@NeilFLiversidge]

The Appian Way - the first bit ot it at any rate - was built by Appius Claudius somewhere around 312 years BC.

[@ianwatson7920]

My Dad was in 18th Battalion and Armoured Regiment under Freiburg! He hated Cassino for the mud and devastation in the town around the Railway station!!! Cold and wet conditions !!

[@jsrjsr6105]

Why is this man not all over KZbin? Why no book?

[@VileCAESARB]

He is and does have books, do a web search

[@SgtMjr]

Italy even had it's own 'Stalingrad' at Ortona.

[@VileCAESARB]

I love how the frog talks about the brits at 53:00 and makes precisely the point as to why the French lost France, staggering....

[@casparcoaster1936]

Christ, I want to read everything this guy has written about WW2, I love a Brit accent for a documentary, but tired British historians, gotta read this cat

[@terrysmith9362]

How about Anglophobic American historians????

[@bazzaboy1100]

hmm, "everyone wanted clark to go to rome" no they didn't, no one wanted clark to go to rome, by doing that he allowed the germans to retreat and so continue the war in italy, had he done what he was actually supposed to do was cut the germans off from their retreat, some tactful re-imagining of history right there

[@ppumpkin3282]

Many more men lost at Anzio then D-Day. At least they could have moved the men off the beach to a defensible position.

[@paddy864]

That was the plan, and the "they" you're referring to was the commanding general, Maj. Gen. Lucas US Army, whose timidity led to the whole debacle. Mind you, Mark Clark had advised him not to stick his neck out once he got his men ashore.

[@ppumpkin3282]

We went to Italy and Africa because the UK had failed miserably in Northern Europe and Churchill needed a win to build up their confidence before they attacked France head on. For the US it was a practice run before D-Day.

[@paddy864]

How exactly did the UK "fail miserably in Northern Europe"? If you mean the fact that the relatively tiny British Expeditionary Force of c.250,000 men was evacuated from France after the almost total collapse of their main ally, the 1.5million strong French Army then I think you need a reality check. The reason the British found themselves fighting in N. Africa is because the small pre-war garrison in Egypt was forced to confront the Italian Army in Libya which was threatening the British naval base at Alexandria and the Suez Canal if not stopped. There was also the matter of the Persian Oil-fields of course. You are correct as far as the US Army needing "a practice run", as Cirillo more or less says in his talk, they were seriously under-trained and under-experienced at every level and had no real idea what it meant to fight Germans. Sicily and then Italy were invaded because having cleared N.Africa there was a need to keep fighting and an invasion of France was out of the question at that time.

[@VileCAESARB]

@@paddy864 These people make these comments and then don't seem capable of backing them up, I love how he says "we" like he had any involvement. I also love how they show up basically three years late and start chatting on.... cow^rds.