Osprey Essential Histories 32 : The Second World War (6) : Northwest Europe 1944-1945

This book examines the seminal Northwest Europe campaign of the Second World War. This hard-fought campaign conducted by the Western Allies against the Germans during 1944-45 represented, for the former, the decisive theatre of the entire Second World War. From the desperate and risk-laden D-Day landings on 6 June 1944 against Hitler's supposedly impregnable Atlantic Wall defences to the rapid charge through western and central Germany in the last weeks of the war, American, British, Canadian and French military forces took on and defeated the German military. This victory ensured that the scourge of Nazism was finally expunged from the face of Europe. Throughout, the narrative examines each side's strategy as well as the tactics and operational art used to achieve these strategic goals. Alongside its focus on the campaign's key battles, the study also provides an in-depth examination of the individual soldier's and civilian's daily experiences of the campaigns - their emotions, the hardships and the lifelong bonds of camaraderie that developed. The work also sets the battles firmly in their wider context, by examining both the nature of the opposing armies and the political forces for which they fought. Russell Hart delivers a wide-ranging and stimulating account of the myriad forces of one of the most fascinating campaigns in the history of warfare.

Contents

• Introduction
• Chronology
• Background to War : The Road to D-Day
• Warring Sides : A Military Audit
• Outbreak : The Allies Invade France
• The Fighting : From D-Day to Victory
• Portrait of a Soldier : Donald Burgett
• The World around War : Rationing and Retaliation
• Portrait of a Civilian : Brenda McBryde
• How the War Ended : The Road to VE Day
• Conclusion and Consequences : 'The Most Devastating and Costly War'