Fire and Steel
The End of World War Two in the West
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4.7 • 3 Ratings
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- $25.99
Publisher Description
The final volume in one of the most acclaimed works of military history of this generation.
Here is Peter Caddick-Adams' third volume in his trilogy about the final year of the Western front in World War Two. Fire & Steel covers the war's final 100 days-beginning in late January 1945 and continuing until May 8th, 1945, when the German high command surrendered unconditionally to all Allied forces. Caddick-Adams' previous two volumes in the acclaimed series-Sand & Steel, which covers the invasion of Normandy in June 1944, and Snow & Steel, the definitive study of the Battle of the Bulge, the German's final offensive in the war-have set the stage for this concluding volume.
In these final months of World War Two, all of Germany is ablaze, from daily bombing runs launched from just across its borders and incessant artillery fire from the east. In the west, the Allied progress was inexorable, with Eisenhower's seven armies taking on Germany's seven armies, town by town, bridge by bridge. With his customary narrative verve and utter mastery of the material, Caddick-Adams does these climactic final months full justice, from the capture of the Ludendorff Railway Bridge at Remagen, to the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, to the taking of Munich on Hitler's birthday, April 20th, and through to VE Day. Fire & Steel ends with the return of prisoners, demobilization of servicemen, and the beginning of the occupation of Germany.
A triumphant concluding volume to one of the most distinguished works of military history of this generation.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Caddick-Adams (Snow and Steel), a lecturer at the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, chronicles in this exhaustive history the Western Allies' drive into Germany in the final 100 days of WWII. After repelling German offensives in the Ardennes and struggling to take the Colmar Pocket, Caddick-Adams explains, Allied generals refined their ability to work together in their concerted push to the Rhine, "the most formidable natural obstacle in western Europe, next to the Normandy beaches." Drawing on eyewitness testimony from journalists and soldiers, including the future Archbishop of Canterbury, Caddick-Adams documents hazardous battlefield conditions, fierce urban fighting, and the first horrified encounters with enslaved laborers and concentration camp inmates. In February 1945, 25,000 American infantrymen "slid in one continuous, unstoppable wave" across the flooded Roer River, surprising the enemy and setting the stage for a series of pivotal clashes on the Rhine. Caddick-Adams provides incisive details about the unexpected capture of the Ludendorff railway bridge at Remagen, the fractious relationship between American and Free French generals, Hitler's plans to "impose extortionate casualties" on the Allies, the struggle to coordinate piecemeal surrenders by German forces, and more. This is a must-have for the bookshelves of dedicated WWII history buffs.
