Why are you not surprised? I did try, honestly I did, but it's all the fault of that bloody Kindle-thingie. I had just finished a book, a bit of nonsense from Tom Woods' very entertaining "Victor the Assassin" series and before I could stop myself my finger had prodded the 'History' section and, well, all was lost. I came across "The Battle for the Rhine" by the late Robin Neillands of whom I had never heard. From his Wiki entry he sounds like an interesting character and the fact that he was once a Corporal is, of course, all the qualification one needs to be a military historian - er, even if in his case he was a Corporal in the Royal Marines (pause to hawk and spit)!
I gather from the reviews of his book that he biffs and bashes the American generals, Eisenhower, Patton (natch!) and Bradley but over-praises 'Monty'. At this point, I was about to provide you all with my personal overview of the campaign across north-western Europe in 1944/5 - golly-gosh, I bet you can hardly wait - but dimly in the back of what passes for my memory a tiny bell rang and, completely without any assistance from my 'Chief Archivist', I found what I wrote nearly eight years ago! Now, I'm not one to repeat myself - and I heard that! - so I will leave you to read it for yourselves. My next task is to read Mr. Neillands' thoughts on the subject with parts of which, I fear, I might disagree, and then I will give you my opinion.
Military history is both fascinating and hugely enjoyable because, of course, as a reader you can see all the obvious errors made by the opposing Generals and one can remain in a state of high self-satisfaction, confident in the thought that you, yourself, would have handled the business very much better!
https://www.amazon.com/Second-World-Wars-Global-Conflict/dp/0465066984/ref=laB000APGQDU1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1513309948&sr=1-1
SoD does have your correct address David?
Posted by: JK | Friday, 15 December 2017 at 21:45
Morning Duffers, I think I came to your blog after that piece was written and it is extremely interesting.
Thank you.
Posted by: Cuffleyburgers | Saturday, 16 December 2017 at 08:51
confident in the thought that you, yourself, would have handled the business very much better
Hindsight is always 20/20. Whether you are an infantry corporal, a Captain on a ship's bridge or a general commanding an army you have to make your decisions based on what information you have at the time. Sometimes the wrong decision will be made and sometimes those making them are acting in the belief that their decision is the right one.
Command is a heady privilege and a lonely place.
Posted by: AussieD | Saturday, 16 December 2017 at 10:09