The award-winning historian offers an illuminating reassessment of WWII Allied operations in the Mediterranean-and the generals who led them.As a secondary theater of combat during the Second World War, the Mediterranean has received less historical analysis than Northwest Europe, where Allies made their celebrated D-Day invasion. In this volume, Carlo D'Este underscores the importance of the Mediterranean campaign while calling into question much of the standard historical narrative on the subject. With expert research, D'Este presents a nuanced and often surprising assessment of Allied leadership. Special attention is given to the three commanders of the Italian campaign: General Sir Harold R. L. G. Alexander and Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery of the British Army, and the American General Mark W. Clark. Balancing his close examination of high-level strategy with acute attention to the realities on the ground, D'Este delivers a study that is both vivid and provocative.