Ken Ford

Solid entry in Osprey's Campaign series, this one looking at the crossings by Anglo-American forces of the Rhine River, in March of 1945. While the battle does not have the drama of other campaigns (probably the sole drawback for this entry), Ford does an admirable job of laying out how the battle was set up, and how it was carried out.

While Ken Ford might not be Osprey's best contributor his battle studies are always at least workmanlike and this booklet is no exception. In particular, Ford does make clear that the British failure in this battle was very much a failure of command and control, as there was a general lack of trust and respect among the British flag-grade commanders that contributed to the defeat; never mind the issues with doctrine and style of warfare that were pervasive in the 8th Army. To put it another show more way, while Bernard Montgomery might be criticized for his "tidy" and over-controlled style of battle there was more than enough evidence in 1942 that the average British general could not handle initiative. Apart from that this book being a decade old means that a lot of new scholarship on the British way of war is not reflected in the biography, which even at the time of publishing was a little bit dated. "Monty's Men" by John Buckley is a good survey of the new literature. show less

A reasonable summary of the end game in North Africa which while more concerned with the final denouement of the struggle between the Panzerarmee Afrika and the 8th Army doesn't overlook either Axis strategic bankruptcy or the limitations of Montgomery's operational way of war. The thought that comes to mind is that this is a campaign that would merit new primary research as much of Ford's biography looks rather dated. That would probably mean taking the Italian perspective seriously.

Good overview of the pocket and the battles leading up to it. Answered a lot of questions I had about the pocket from a strategic standpoint as my interest in it has grown. Nice strategic view but left me wanting to find a book that covers more of the various things experienced by men on the ground. Something that I consider invaluable in this series is the last chapter in each book titled 'The Battlefield Today' this is an excellent resource for those traveling and for me personally as I show more plan my 3 month backpacking trip of Europe's battlefields. show less