Battlefields (of the Second World War)

Oct 8, 2024 1:17 PM

Author:Richard Holmes

'Battlefields of the Second World War' is what every Richard Holmes fan has been waiting for. In this fascinating and brilliantly articulated study of the Second World War, he clarifies the complexities of four of its campaigns: El Alamein, Monte Cassino, Operation Market Garden (of which Arnhem formed a crucial part)and the RAF's bomber offensive against Germany. The book originates in his firm conviction that the sacrifices made by British service personnel are not properly understood. It uses eye-witness accounts to illuminate the horror, confusion and sheer enormity of war, and puts this in the context of the conflict's broader strategy. 'The name Richard Holmes is to military history what Made in Britain once was to maufactured goods. There is no shoddiness in materials or labour; reliability is the hallmark, not flashiness, John Bull the proud emblem'. 'The Times'

Reviews

Undoubtedly the most powerful memoir of any war I have ever read ... Storm of Steel combines the most astonishing literary gifts with absorption with war in every detail. It has German loyalties and a German sensibility, but not a trace of propaganda. It is particular, yet universal ... What Jünger saw and recorded was, to use his own word, 'primordial'. It takes great art to convey that appalling simplicity

—— Charles Moore , Telegraph

Storm of Steel is what so many books claim to be but are not: a classic account of war

—— Evening Standard

Hofmann's interpretation is superb

—— The Times

Unique in the literature of this or any other war is its brilliantly vivid conjuration of the immediacy and intensity of battle

—— Telegraph

Mr Longmate has recruited an enormous volunteer army of home-front veterans who sent him their wartime recollections... He has brilliantly sifted and assembled the precious debris

—— Guardian

Highly original and penetrating ... No one who has digested this enthralling work will ever be able to look at the period again in quite the same way

—— Sunday Telegraph

Keegan's power as a writer derives from the fact that he does not see himself merely as a chronicler of battles, but as a student of the human condition. It is the breadth of his grasp of civilisation, as well as of the soldier's art, that makes this book so formidable.

—— Max Hastings , Evening Standard

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