Battle for the Rhineland; The Full Story of the Savage, Bloody Battle That Smashed the Siegfried Line.
New York, N.Y. Ballantine Books, Inc., 1959. Presumed First Printing thus. Mass market paperback. 207, [1] pages. Cover very worn and soiled. Page browning noted. First two pages had become separated and were reglued back in. Includes Part One: The Check; Part Two: The Strategic Reverse; and Part Three: The Battle of the Rhineland. Also includes Maps of the Battle of the Rhineland; The Battle for Schmidt; The Battle for the Rhineland; "Blackcock"; and "Veritable." Sources R. W. Thompson served in World War II and was promoted to Captain before he was transferred to the Intelligence Corps for training. After his release from the army he traveled extensively as a war correspondent for the Sunday Times. He attended the Nuremberg trials as a reporter. In 1951 he settled in Suffolk to write full time on military subjects. R. W. Thompson saw the Battle For the Rhine happen. In this book, he reveals the doubts of commanders, and the agony and courage of fighting men in the last great battle that annihilated the German Army. An Engrossing Study of the British and American Victory Over the German Army in the West During World War II. In this fascinating account of the critical final campaign against Nazi Germany on the western front, Reginald W. Thompson focuses on both the command decisions by the British and American generals and the performance of the enlisted men in order to explain the complex series of events that led to the German defeat in World War II. During the planning and run-up to what was intended to be a massive joint British and American push across the Rhine River and into the heart of Germany, the Allies encountered unexpected setbacks. Operation Market-Garden, the Allied aerial assault of the Low Countries, ended in disaster, while the attack through the Hurtgen Forest was met by unexpected heavy resistance due to the buildup for the German surprise counterstrike planned for December 1944, what would become known as the Battle of the Bulge. The author identifies the attack on the town of Schmidt in the Hurtgen Forest as the key battle that set in motion a series of events that both prolonged the war and shaped Allied strategy in their effort to cross the Rhine. Here the reader will learn the chain of decisions that allowed the Allies to pressure German forces between the Roer and Rhine rivers and move on Cologne, Dusseldorf, and other key points, including the famous bridge over the Rhine at Remagen, near Bonn. Based on both American and British official reports and the author’s independent research and originally published in 1958, The Battle for the Rhineland is a lucid, balanced, and engaging account of a critical period in Western Europe during the Second World War. Condition: Fair.
Keywords: WWII, European Theater, Germany, Hurtgen Forest, Ardennes, Battle of the Bulge, Roer, Remagen, Operation Market-Garden, Ludendorff Bridge, Blackcock, Reichswald, Omar Bradley, Courtney Hodges, Bernard Montgomery, George Patton, Nijmegen, Operation Ve
[Book #82058]
Price: $17.50