Well the title of the book pretty much tells all. It describes the sequence of events that ended in the destruction of the Monte Cassino Monastery in WWII. The book says the Americans didn't really want to get involved in this project and instead focus on the planned D-Day invasion of Normandy in 1944. But Churchill insisted on doing something in 1943 and doing it from "the soft underbelly" of Europe. Everybody thought this would be an easy invasion but Italy's geography really put a damper on those ideas. Lots of interesting new info here that I'd not read before.