The Canadian Battlefield in Italy: Sicily and Southern Italy.

George Bryant is an active field botanist and past-president of the Field Botanists of Ontario.

Although designed as a travel companion for visitors to the battlefields, this slim volume also holds great interest for armchair war historians.

The book escorts the traveller along the 1st Canadian Division’s path from the landing beaches in Sicily, through the island’s interior to Messina, and then through southern Italy from the toe (Reggia di Calabria) to the ankle (Campobassa), where a new stage of the Italian campaign began.

For both Sicily and southern Italy the book provides an introduction to the geography and the conflict, a daily history of the advances of the Allied forces, and detailed self-guided tours for a motorist.

The book is lavishly illustrated with a variety of mediums. These include black and white photographs and sketches by war artists taken during the conflict, many of which have not been published previously. Recent colour photographs show the arid Mediterranean aspect of the battlefields and give one a sense of the rugged geography. To assist in a battlefield tour the book contains 16 Google Earth satellite photographs with overlays of routes taken by the Allied forces and major highways. Suggested battlefield tours of Sicily and southern Italy include recommended stops and background information for each stop.

In April 2006, this reviewer toured Sicily. It is a lovely island and April is the perfect month to visit. Nevertheless, our trip would have been immeasurably improved had we then had access to this book.