Marc Milner

Written in part as an exercise in filial piety (Milner's father hit the beach with the 3rd Canadian Division on D-Day), this book is part of a wave of the then New Operational History that started in the late 20th century.

Intended as a debunking of the supposed poor performance of the Canadians in the initial days after June 6, Milner begins this work with an examination of the initial historiography of operations, and finds them wanting. Partly this is due to a lack of access to key documents by the authors, a lot of it is due to either American and British writers with their own agendas, or a desire to bury certain Canadian controversies (such as the sacking of General Andy McNaughton).

From there, Milner goes deep into the weeds in terms of considering just what was the operational mission of the 3rd in the D-Day plan, and emphasizes that a specific mission was assigned; blocking the best avenue of attack for a German armored assault on the beachhead, and being given healthy reinforcements of field artillery, anti-tank assets, and a full tank brigade to achieve this mission.

Milner then swings into examining how theory was put into practice, and finds much to praise. While circumstances could be unforgiving, and some mistakes were made, the reality is that the Canadians went toe-to-toe with three supposedly elite German armored formations (12th SS Panzer, 21st Panzer, and the Panzer Lehr Division), and generally gave better then they got. This also answers a question that I've had ever since I've read John Keegan's "Six Armies in Normandy," that if the Canadians were supposedly so mediocre, why did they fight the supposedly elite "Hitler Jugend" Division to a stand-still? Answer: Maybe these German divisions weren't all they were cracked up to be, which can be admitted since we are no longer in the Cold War's "all hail the Wehrmacht" period of military history.

Finally, since Milner has spent a lot of time leading staff tours to this old battle zone, his work offers the valuable service of illustrating how the actual lay of the land influences events.

I have almost nothing to mark this book down for and I regret not reading it a little bit sooner.… (altro)