An odd book. Neillands starts out loudly proclaiming to look at things even handedly and unbiasedly ... then promptly proceeds to bag anything the Americans do while lauding any British success and glossing British failures, or blaming them on the US. To be fair, Patton and Bradley deserve a large measure of criticism for actively working against Eisenhowers plan and Allied interests in the Aug-Oct period, but Neillands goes a little far in blaming Eisenhower - rather than Montgomery - for the failure to open Antwerp promptly. Similarly, Browning is simultaneously blamed for allowing the flawed 1st UK A/B LZs at Arnhem, while excused for the same fault at Nijmegan with the 82nd A/B, apparently so that Gavin can be blamed instead.

Overall the book is reasonably well written, although the maps could have been a lot more useful, and the weighting of various campaigns is a little uneven, with the Battle of the Bulge in particular getting comparatively little ink. ( )

July to December 1944: the Allies had broken out of the Normandy beachhead, the German armies were in full retreat and hastening back toward Germany, with French, British, and American armies in hot pursuit. SHAEF rosily predicted a January collapse, which was spectacularly refuted in the Ardennes. The author is interested in three intertwined issues: Allied strategy for the ground war, Eisenhower’s performance as the ground forces commander, and the various army commanders’ roles in the race for the Rhine. He attempts to correct American historians’ biases, re-examine the actions of the major subordinate commanders (Montgomery, Bradley, and Patton) and discuss the problems that kept the Allies from ending the war in 1944. Evaluations of the characters are balanced; Eisenhower was a fine coalition leader and a mediocre battlefield commander; Montgomery is shown as a solid and experienced commander but a total failure at relationships with the other generals; Patton as reasonably effective in the pursuit but constantly undermining Allied strategy. Neillands is the author of several military history books, including Eighth Army and Bomber War. Might have been better if Neillands had integrated the larger strategic picture, as for instance the firebombing of the German cities, to better describe the context. On the other hand he died shortly after finishing this book, so give him a break. ( )