It's comprehensive, It's long (863 pages). It's up-to-date (2012). It covers all the lesser known second world war actions such as Kolkin Gol, where the Soviets whipped the Japanese, the Ichigo offensive in China, and the Hurtgen forest operations. The author is a Brit, but he joins in with numerous others in trashing Montgomery. He covers the really grisly parts of the war, the Holocaust, treatment of prisoners, in horrible detail. He doesn't believe in strategic bombing.
His writing style is pedestrian, "They did this, then they did that, then something else happened, ...". Little to no background information, little discussion of why things happened, no explanation of might-have-beens. Little to no discussion of why the winners won and the losers lost. Little discussion of the political angles of the war and the peace, such as could the Soviet takeover of eastern and central Europe been avoided?
I have read better World War II histories, starting with Winston Churchill's war memoirs (6 volumes), John Keegan's Second World War, Rick Atkinsen's Liberation Trilogy, Samuel Elliot Morrison's Two Ocean War, Harold Spector's Eagle against the Sun, William Shirer's Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, and many others
No comments:
Post a Comment