Up the Boot: Italy 1943-1945

“This campaign is a hard row to hoe. It is the most difficult country in Europe, and yet we always get troops and equipment taken away from us for elsewhere. We have done all the fighting on a very narrow margin of relative strengths.” - Oliver Leese, Commander 8th Army Up the Boot is an operational simulation of the Italian campaign from the invasion of Sicily to the collapse of German and Fascist Italian forces in 1945. The game uses hexes and division scale units, supported by assets including naval, air, and small elite forces. One can play the entire campaign or a scenario. Scenarios include... The Invasion of Sicily: Kicking in the Door The Invasion of Italy: The Allied Avalanche The Volturno Line: The Long Slog Up the Boot Anzio and Cassino: Breaking the Gustav Line The Gothic Line: Bloody Stalemate The Po Valley: Blitzkrieg Comes to Italy “No amount of artillery fire or aerial bombardment could force them to withdraw. That was for the infantry to do employing those weapons that find and destroy life in narrow trenches, caves, and fighting holes. It was up to the man with the rifle. The man under fire from all weapons. Them whose way all our weapons land, air, and sea serve only to prepare. It was up to the foot soldier to attack a hidden enemy over ground that was sown with mines. The anti-personnel mines that fly up the footfall to explode beneath the groin.” – John Huston, The Battle of San Pietro (1944) —description from the publisher