The Guns at Last Light
The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945
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The Guns at Last Light
Narrated by:
L.J. Ganser
Buy Now for £23.62
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Narrated by:
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L.J. Ganser
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By:
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Rick Atkinson
It is the twentieth century’s unrivaled epic: at a staggering price, the United States and its allies liberated Europe and vanquished Hitler. In the first two volumes of his bestselling Liberation Trilogy, Rick Atkinson recounted the history of how the American-led coalition fought its way from North Africa and Italy to the threshold of victory. Now he tells the most ?dramatic story of all—the titanic battle in Western Europe.
D-Day marked the commencement of the war’s final campaign, and Atkinson’s astonishingly fresh account of that enormous gamble sets the pace for the masterly narrative that follows. The brutal fight in Normandy, the liberation of Paris, the disaster that was Market Garden, the horrific Battle of the Bulge, and finally the thrust to the heart of the Third Reich—all these historic moments come utterly alive. Atkinson tells the tale from the perspective of participants at all levels, from presidents and prime?ministers to ambitious generals, from war-weary lieutenants to terrified teenage riflemen. When Germany at last surrenders, we understand anew both the devastating cost of this global conflagration and the awe-inspiring effort that led to Germany’s?surrender.
With the stirring final volume of this monumental trilogy, Rick Atkinson’s remarkable accomplishment is manifest. He has produced the definitive chronicle of the war that restored freedom to the West. His lively, occasionally lyric prose brings the vast theater of battle, from the beaches of Normandy deep into Germany, brilliantly alive. It is hard to imagine a better history of the western front’s final phase.
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the best work of WW2 CHRONICLE ever...
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However, the wider Allied coalition often feels reduced to a sideshow, generally appearing only when making mistakes, airing perceived slights, or actively hindering US war aims. In the end, you are left with the impression that other nations were merely present rather than driving major operations. Montgomery comes in for plenty of deserved criticism for his antics, yet there is an extraordinary amount of page time devoted to it—even when he was voicing tactical complaints about Eisenhower's "broad front" advance that were widely shared by other commanders.
Another puzzler is Yalta, which receives remarkably scant coverage—barely a few paragraphs—with almost no analysis of the geopolitical fallout. For an event that carved up post-war Europe, it deserved either proper strategic scrutiny or none at all.
I haven't listened to the first two books in the Liberation Trilogy, but based on this volume, I am hesitant to do so. If you are looking for a more balanced, multi-national view of the global conflict that sprays praise and criticism evenly where due, look to Max Hastings instead.
Insightful on the US war effort, but narrow in its
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