A worthy conclusion to an excellent trilogy, as first, Caddick-Adams presents a coherent operational portrait of the last 100 days of World War II in Northwest Europe. This book would be worthwhile for that if nothing else.

Two, the man continues his mission to debunk some of the "just so" stories that have come down from the war. These include such matters as the agendas and plans relating to crossing the Rhine into Germany, the trade-offs between the reduction of the Ruhr Pocket and the Western allies trying to grab Berlin from the Soviets, the murky story of Anglo-American and Soviet encounters along the Oder River, and the command stresses in ETO as the endgame finally became apparent.

Third and finally, Caddick-Adams devotes a great deal of time to the Allies coming into direct contact with the Nazi economy of forced labor and genocide, and how that radicalized and supercharged a slightly flagging effort; no one who encountered the death camps needed to have any further explanation of what they were fighting for.

I still think the man's book about D-Day and Normandy is the best portion of the lot, but one could do a lot worse than tackling this trilogy. ( )

I have often said to friends that there are great historians and great writers and occasionally someone who is both and when you find one of those you have a keeper. Peter Caddick-Adams is one of these rare unicorns which he so clearly demonstrates in the last book of his Trilogy on the Western European Theater.

Fire and Steel: The End of World War II in the West is a 5 star read which focuses on the under studied and read on post Battle of the Bulge period, which includes the breaching of the West Wall, the crossing of the Rhine and the final advance on and surrender of German Forces.

Adams is great at painting the big picture while never losing sight of the small unit and individual contributors to the Allied Victory in Europe and winds up the book on the post war careers of key senior Allied Leadership. ( )