The Boxer Rebellion and the Great Game in China

The Boxer Rebellion and the Great Game in China by David J. Silbey

Review

This is a military history of the Boxer Rebellion in China and how the close the Boxers initially came to winning against the foreign forces in China in 1900.  Their mission was to exterminate all foreigners in China and though their cause ended quickly, they inspired Chinese nationalism for years to come including Mao Zedong.

Interesting Facts

The Boxers were a bottom up phenomenon. No one controlled them from the top, so by sending a few people from village to village, town to town and city to city to train people, the movement grew incredibly fast.

Boxers was a Western label from "Righteous Fists of Harmony."

The foreign forces involved in relieving the foreign delegations in Beijing were the British, American, French, German, Japanese, Russian, Italian, and Austrian. 

Monte Cassino: Ten Armies in Hell

Monte Cassino: Ten Armies in Hell by Peter Caddick-Adams

Review

This is the second book I have read dedicated to Cassino and one of several on the combined Cassino/Anzio campaign.  The book brings an unique perspective to the battle by focusing on how the the various Armies were successful or not successful.  Of particular interest was the success of the French under Juin and the Polish Corps that finally took Monte Cassino.  Caddick-Adams is much friendlier to British General Harold Alexander than most historians.  There is also a nice focus on the 8th Army's breakthrough up the Liri Valley.  We know that Churchill liked Alexander, but the author considers him to have similar skills to Eisenhower as a diplomat general.  The author also goes easy on American General Mark Clark's decision to take Rome and deliberately disobey orders by not cutting off the retreating German 10th Army.   Caddick-Adams  notes that there was no guarantee of trapping the 10th Army which seems to be a spurious argument for disobeying orders.

Interesting Facts

Nearly 15,000 mules were used during the campaign as they proved the only reliable means of bringing supplies up and the injured and dead down from the mountains.

The Germans would mount a revolving Panther turret, called a Pantherturm, to a concrete bunker in the Gustav line.  One killed 17 Allied tanks in 3 days, the Pantherturm leader actually becoming a "tank ace." Below is an intact Pantherturm and one that has had its turret blown off by an Allied shell in Italy.

Because of such a lack of food in Naples, it is estimated that 42,000 women out of 150,000 engaged in regular or part-time prostitution.

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