the war in Western Europe, 1944-1945 Thorndike Press large print nonfiction
Rick Atkinson: The guns at last light (2013)
1209 pages
English language
Published April 28, 2013
It is the twentieth century's unrivaled epic: at a staggering price, the United States and its Allies vanquished Hitler and liberated Europe. In the first two volumes of his bestselling Liberation Trilogy, Rick Atkinson recounted how the American-led coalition fought through North Africa and Italy to the threshold of victory. Now he tells the most dramatic story of all - the titanic battle in Western Europe.
Atkinson provides a great narrative, like usual. If you are looking for original arguments or revisionist history of the Second World War, look elsewhere. He is best on detailing the relationships between allied generals and leaders—especially Eisenhower and Monty.
A swell history of the Allies in Western Europe. Part three of Atkinson's five star trilogy about the campaigns in North Africa/Italy/Western Europe. I have read a lot about this story (The longest day, Is paris burning?, A bridge too far, The last battle, etc.), but I think I appreciated this history more because of it. It must be a daunting task to write this complex story, after all, what do you include? But Atkinson has done a great, even swell, job. Most fascinating are the assorted weirdos who were in charge of things (Le Lattre, De Gaulle, Montgomery, Patton); it seems almost impossible that they could accomplish anything together. I also enjoyed the various parts of the story that I knew little or nothing about, the landing at Marseilles and campaign in central France, the problems in the Colmar pocket, accusations against the French in Stuttgart, the US fear …
A swell history of the Allies in Western Europe. Part three of Atkinson's five star trilogy about the campaigns in North Africa/Italy/Western Europe. I have read a lot about this story (The longest day, Is paris burning?, A bridge too far, The last battle, etc.), but I think I appreciated this history more because of it. It must be a daunting task to write this complex story, after all, what do you include? But Atkinson has done a great, even swell, job. Most fascinating are the assorted weirdos who were in charge of things (Le Lattre, De Gaulle, Montgomery, Patton); it seems almost impossible that they could accomplish anything together. I also enjoyed the various parts of the story that I knew little or nothing about, the landing at Marseilles and campaign in central France, the problems in the Colmar pocket, accusations against the French in Stuttgart, the US fear that the Germans were massing a secret army in the Alps, Patton's attempt to use an armored battalion to try to rescue his son-in-law from a POW camp, a detailed account of the meeting at Yalta including the problem with bedbugs. Highly recommended - read all three.
By the way, nowhere in the book did I find the quote attributed to Paul Reynaud that "De Gaulle has the character of a pig, but he has character."
Also the author mistakenly uses the word "gutful" to mean brave two or three times.
An excellent finish to the Liberation Trilogy. This book does a greatt job of showing the totality of the big picture in Western Europe from 1944 to 1945. Nearly everyone knows D-Day, Market-Garden, and the Bulge. Many know Falaise, the Hurtgen Forest, and Remagen. Fewer know the events that connect those battles, creating the narrative of the war in Western Europe. This books biggest strength is in paying attention to those events and thereby creating a continuous narrative in a way that I've yet to see in another work.
There is only one real criticism that I can level against the book, and that's one of style. I'd love to recommend this trilogy to people interested in learning more about WWII, but the author has an unfortunate tendency to show off his vocabulary. I suppose as a professional journalist, he has felt constrained by the need to write to an …
An excellent finish to the Liberation Trilogy. This book does a greatt job of showing the totality of the big picture in Western Europe from 1944 to 1945. Nearly everyone knows D-Day, Market-Garden, and the Bulge. Many know Falaise, the Hurtgen Forest, and Remagen. Fewer know the events that connect those battles, creating the narrative of the war in Western Europe. This books biggest strength is in paying attention to those events and thereby creating a continuous narrative in a way that I've yet to see in another work.
There is only one real criticism that I can level against the book, and that's one of style. I'd love to recommend this trilogy to people interested in learning more about WWII, but the author has an unfortunate tendency to show off his vocabulary. I suppose as a professional journalist, he has felt constrained by the need to write to an 8th grade level for most publications. Unfortunately, this has led to him using a great number of words for which most will need to reach for a dictionary. It would be one thing if the words were indeed a better choice than a simpler word choice would have been, but not once did I find that to be the case.
Overall though, it's a great book, and was worth the wait.
