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entrepreneurs like you. Sign up for your $1 a month trial at Shopify.com slash setup. Hello and welcome to the latest episode of our Battleground 44 series with me, Saul David.

Today I'm speaking to historian Matthew Parker about the epic battle of Monte Cassino in

southern Italy that began 80 years

ago this month. Matthew is the author of the best-selling book, Monte Cassino, the story of the

hardest fought battle of World War II, which was published in 2003. Matthew, welcome to the podcast.

Hi. Now, the battle of Monte Cassino began in January 1944, 80 years ago this month.

It would rage for five months and in the end conclude, I suppose, in what many

historians would describe as a Pyrrhic victory.

But first, let's set the scene, shall we?

The Allies have invaded southern Italy in September 1943.

Just give us a little bit of a sense of what they were trying to do in Italy. What were their strategic goals and how had the fighting

played out by the end of 1943? Well, I think in your introductory podcast for this series,

you and Patrick Bishop talked about the sort of wider background and the strong disagreements that

had taken place between American and British priorities. And the Americans, of course,

Marshall in particular, was keen on concentrating on the invasion of Northern Europe and saw

the Mediterranean as a sort of side show and something

motivated by British imperial interests rather than the hope of giving Germany as quick a defeat as

...