The Struggle for Europe

I've been slogging through it and appreciate Wimot's writing style and humor sprinkled throughout, although I'm sure I miss some of it because I'm not British. He does a good job of explaining what happened without getting bogged down in details like a Battle of the Bulge book I just read. If you're interested in WW2, get this book.

If you really want know about the conquest of Western Europe from D-Day onwards, go no further than reading this book.

I attended the New Zealand Armed Forces Staff Course in 1997 and had to read numerous books on military history. None of them were as engrossing and well written as Chestor Wilmonts Struggle for Europe. This has been on my bookshelf for many years and I have read it twice. A terrific expose of the second world war in Europe. Chester draws you into the war as if you were there on D Day, and turns what could have been a very boring strategic overview of the war into an indepth study which keeps you wanting to read more.

A very readable, comprehensive, yet compact study of the war in Europe. Wilmot covers all of the war in Europe, including Dunkirk, Dieppe, Battle of/Invasion of Britain,etc but is especially in his element post D-Day. He puts a lot of things in context- e.g. land force successes are related to the strategic ability of Germany to wage war following the strategic bombing of German factories etc., which in turn is put into the context of an air war, and other factors pertaining to output. Yes, German output of materiél was increasing at the end of the war...For me, the best thing is that Chester WIlmot was, I believe, a New Zealander. He is therefore a lot more objective in his work than you find in many of the distorted and jignoistic books on the topic, where you expect John Wayne to arrive at any minute and nothing goes wrong. The Allies DID make mistakes. It wasnt all glorious, and he reflects this, whilst giving credit where it is due and putting reverses into proper context. For example, his analysis of Omaha beach and the inadequacies of US higher command that led to it is very moving; and he pulls no punches with e.g. Operation Market Garden either. Further, the political struggles within the allies are as well represented as the struggle against Nazi Germany itself: Finally, after reading Wilmot, you are left in no doubt that the fighting in Western Europe after D-Day was every bit as bitter and devastating as the fighting in the first world war, and with equally horrific casualties.A must have book. I have been trying to track one down for years. I eventually found a well-used 1950s copy in a second hand book shop, and I would love another hard back version, but will settle for a paperback in the interim.BUY THIS BOOK!!

When Chester Wilmot, an Oxbridge graduate and a reporter for an English newspaper, was sifting through the war records at Nuremburg during the war trials, it donned on him that all the material the Allies needed to determine whether their D-Day strategy worked was in his hands. When he became a don at Oxford (I believe), he did just that. He poured over signal records captured from the Germans, historical data from the Allies, and produced a marvelous account of what the Allies did on D-Day and why it worked. The fact that Wilmot was on foot as a correspondent with the first British landing parties on D-Day only adds to the vision and understanding in, and the reader's appreciation of, this story. You'll end up wanting more. My wife and I visited Normandy on an excursion in the Summer of 1994, one week to the day after the 50th D-Day anniversary stuff ended. The crowds were gone but all the sites and history were still there. We stayed in a chateaux in a village called Audrieu and, in preparation for the trip, wanted to read a D-Day history. I'd read the Longest Day and seen the movie, but wanted something more and different. A colleague merely remarked, flatly, "it's the *best* book ever written on the subject." Wilmot didn't fail me. His ability to describe the macro troop movements and supply considerations, while at the same time describing in some cases every turn in the road, every hiding spot, and every skirmish, proved to me his ability as a great story-teller and historian. Even my wife, who was on the trip only because it was to France, and who originally had little interest in the region or D-Day, was smitten by the descriptions. She picked up the book while I was swimming in the Chateaux's pool early one morning, and it couldn't be pried loose until she was done. My wife was struck by the uncanny ability of Wilmot to describe a location or a battle or a situation from a hilltop, or vista point - along with a reference to a mile marker or other memorial so today's reader may find the same view, and witness what it is Wilmot is talking about. When one does this, as we did frequently, the book comes alive in the reader's hands more than any other first person history I have read. Wilmot's book is a masterpiece. Americans will read it and enjoy it because of its slightly skewed view for all of us - it's written from the British perspective most decidedly - and is unyielding in its frank comparisons of fresh but unskilled American troops, compared with their experienced, weary British colleagues. The book will stand out as an icon of its genre to anyone who reads it - and to those who accompany the tome to Normandy, it will make for a lifelong memory. Its ability to enhance a journey to Normandy cannot be overstated. Copyright TAStone 1997.