ISBN: Ostalo
Godina izdanja: 1970
Jezik: Engleski
Autor: Strani

The battle for Germany Hubert Essame ENG RETKO tvrd povez zastitni omot odlicno ocuvano bez ikakvih nedostataka ilustrovano
Lib 13
The battle for Germany Hardcover – 1969
by Hubert Essame (Author)
Book by Essame, Hubert
Product details
Hardcover: 228 pages
Publisher: Batsford; 1st edition (1969)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0713411708
ISBN-13: 978-0713411706
H. Essame`s book, `The Battle for Germany`, is a decent piece of historical literature, despite being titled in a way that suggests a more encompassing story. Let`s first deal with the `misleading` title. `The Battle for Germany` suggests that Essame`s treatise will cover broadly the BATTLES at the end of the campaign in NW Europe by the Western Allies. In fact, Essame covers very little outside the boundaries if the 21st Army Group sphere of action. While one should never blame an author out of hand for a book title, as publishers often manipulate titles to generate interest and thus revenue, Essame could have shared with the reader a clearer picture of what he was to discuss (and omit) in the book during his introduction/preface. As he did not do this I spent 200 pages waiting for equal detail of American actions as were given to British and Canadian combat just to be disappointed. In fairness to Essame he does utilize the LAST three pages of the book telling the reader that he could not cover all of the battles for Germany and that other sources do credit to other actions, especially the official histories produced by the US Army. Certainly Essame`s book, written in 1969, was one of the few at that time to cover the lesser known post-Market-Garden/Bulge battles that led to the fall of the Wehrmacht in the west from the perspective of the Canadians and British (the latter to a lesser extent as Montgomery`s memoirs alone covered much of the British perspective). So the topics covered are certainly fair and valid, especially within the context of when the book was published, yet it was disappointing as a reader to get only part of the picture when the title suggests something more.
So what about the historical content provided in `The Battle for Germany`, is it at least sound and compelling? Yes on both counts. Essame does an admirable job crafting a readable and historically sound story of the actions of the 21st Army Group (and various US unit temporarily assigned to it) in Oct 44-May 45. Essame`s coverage of Operation Veritable is not the best out there but it is quite good and covers some aspects not covered in other works I have read. Although Essame is writing about British/Canadian aspects of the Winter/Spring battles of the late ETO, and thus devotes considerable energy to praise of Montgomery and subordinate commanders, Essame is quite fair in his assessment of these commanders relative to their American counterparts. While spending little time on the actions of the Americans Essame does fairly mention the contributions of the major American actions to the battles for Germany. For example, in his exposition of the Ardennes Counteroffensive Essame covers the contributions of Monty and his temporarily appointed command of the northern shoulder, but does not fail to state that in the end the contributions of Monty and the British/Canadian troops did not win the day, but rather the American soldiers did. On occasion the reader is left with a taste of Brit/Monty-philia but Essame always seems to pepper these occasions with enough reference to contributions of the American armies to balance the `sidedness` of the prose.
In the end, The Battle for Germany is a good little piece of historical literature worth a read. It is written well and is sound in
Format: Hardcover
This bookshould have been titled the 21st army corps battle for Germany, as that is what it covers. It does ok covering that corps. There is very little about U.S. forces foghting at this time. There is a short (I`d call it a disclaimer) at the end of the book basically stating there are other books that cover other parts of the battles in better detail(I`m paraphrasing). So if you want to read about 21st army corps than this is for you. If you want greater detail & coverage of the battles & forces look elsewhere.