I'm John Bachelor with James Holland, the author of the new book The Savage Storm, the

Battle for Italy, 1943.

This is the nightmare now. The rain, the lack of air cover because of the

storms, the mountain peaks, the artillery that is constant, always in the background, always in the foreground.

And the Germans are developing very carefully.

The defensive lines, they know the allies cannot penetrate they're confident

because they have the high ground looking down on the allies the allies

the allies must advance up a mountain side and as James has taught me these mountains are not covered

with dirt and forests they're covered with stone so when a mortar shell or an

artillery shell hits the stone you get secondary effect of shrapnel everywhere, wounding people anywhere in

all directions.

These two facts weigh upon the infantry that must absorb the bulk of the battle because of the mud.

You can't get the armor up.

Remember, big war means steel not flesh.

That's how the Allies fight fight which is different than the

Russians and the Germans as James has taught me. But because of the reins the

flesh must go first and there are two battles that James spends a chapter on each

because they exemplify the challenge for fifth army and eighth army.

The first one I'm going to come to is Ortona because the Felsham

Yager that German paratroops, they're very good quality troops, are dug in at Ortona is my belief and Farley Moat is on the scene as

the Intelligence Officer for the Hastie Peas and he gives us an understanding of this

battle the arbitrariness of the mortar rounds,

...