Siegfried: The Nazis' Last Stand

"From the Great Wall of China to the Maginot Line, nothing... anywhere... ever has been successfully defended." So says General Patton, quoted on pg. 174 of the paperback of this highly readable account of WWII. Siegfried: The Nazi's Last Stand is about the final attacks by British and American forces on Hitler's West Wall at the close of WWII. The author, Charles Whiting is a good writer who gives vivid descriptions of the battlefield and plenty of personal anecdotes. You can get a real sense of the danger and frustrations allied forces faced as they tackled pillboxes and other fortifications again and again. As previous reviewers have mentioned, it is more of a story than a scholarly manuscript, but of course that is the purpose of popular military history! Furthermore, there are plenty of footnotes and references at the end, so the criticism does not really hit home. There are some organizational problems and perhaps a lack of really good photos for today's visual culture, but these too are minor quibbles. Simply put, I thought this was a pretty decent read.

This book is written in Charles Whiting's usual exciting style and is good for a "one session" read. It describes just what a hard slog the allies faced in the closing months of the war, despite the prevalent (incorrect) view that after D Day it was a simple drive through France and into Germany. Highly recommended