Book Review of Normandy 44 by James Holland
I like to think of myself as being widely read and knowledgeable on the subject of the Normandy campaign but as I found out recently my knowledge was barely scratching the surface.
I first saw a book in Waterstones in Doncaster in 2019 called Normandy 44 by James Holland, (yes I'm so boring I even remember where I was when I saw a particular book!). At the time I believed I was pretty clued up on the subject matter so left the book on the shelf, that and the fact I had four book cases crammed with books in my man cave.
Fast forward to late 2020 and I began to see lots more books by James Holland and he was also on YouTube including some chats he had with Al Murray. Being in the RAF it seems a bit strange that my number one interest in World War 2 is tanks and Normandy in particular was a fascinating place for tank on tank confrontation. On some of James Holland's Youtube appearances he goes on about just how good allied and especially British equipment and tactics were better than people have historically been led to believe and on his Top 5 tanks he picks out several allied tanks such as the Cromwell, Churchill Crocodile variant and his top tank was the Sherman Firefly variant. It was shortly after this I bought Normandy 44.
I've read numerous books on the D-day landing and subsequent campaigns and most seem to write generically about the build up and quickly get to the actual landings. James Holland doesn't do this, he's so meticulous he goes well back to the pre-planning stage and shows the reasons for wanting to invade and how they originally had 1943 as their target year and why. He looks deeply into every person involved in the major decisions but more importantly he looks at individual characters from lower down the ranks and in different and opposing armies and Air Forces.
Holland has accessed personal journals and letters to enable him to understand the impact these big decisions had on the ordinary service men and women and he weaves their stories into the bigger picture at each stage of the book. He takes a very deep look at the German forces available for battle in France and the logistical and political difficulties they faced and how this affected their ability to confront the allied juggernaut that was arrayed before them.
Holland lays bare flaws in allied tactical thinking, especially when combining Infantry with Tanks and the steps taken to overcome them when they were faced with the reality of a drawn out campaign in ground not necessarily of their own choosing such as the bocage country. Holland also shows the clashes of personalities on both sides and how they were managed. He especially shows that our tactics whereby using technology such as artillery and air power we saved countless allied lives and avoided a WW1 style bloodbath but the Germans were willing to use flesh and high casualties to achieve their aims. (So too were the Russians but that's a different book)
I suppose the favourite part of this book was the part where he reveals how few Tiger Tanks were ever present in the campaign, Panzer mk4's looked like a baby Tiger which might have caused the confusion, but there were nowhere near the number of Tigers we've been led to believe. He shows that the Tiger and Panther Tanks were over engineered and mechanically unreliable. They were also vulnerable to the British Sherman Firefly Tank that mounted a 17 pounder gun which was more powerful that the vaunted 88 millimetre gun widely used by the German's and knocked out an enormous number of German tanks including their Panzer Ace Michael Wittman, but this has never received the widespread coverage it deserved at the time. (Yes I have been to Bovington Tank Museum)
Holland is at long last righting this imbalance in history with his superbly researched and written book that gives insights from all the participants and is well worth a read for all serious historians and people with an interest in the general subject.
I first saw a book in Waterstones in Doncaster in 2019 called Normandy 44 by James Holland, (yes I'm so boring I even remember where I was when I saw a particular book!). At the time I believed I was pretty clued up on the subject matter so left the book on the shelf, that and the fact I had four book cases crammed with books in my man cave.
Fast forward to late 2020 and I began to see lots more books by James Holland and he was also on YouTube including some chats he had with Al Murray. Being in the RAF it seems a bit strange that my number one interest in World War 2 is tanks and Normandy in particular was a fascinating place for tank on tank confrontation. On some of James Holland's Youtube appearances he goes on about just how good allied and especially British equipment and tactics were better than people have historically been led to believe and on his Top 5 tanks he picks out several allied tanks such as the Cromwell, Churchill Crocodile variant and his top tank was the Sherman Firefly variant. It was shortly after this I bought Normandy 44.
I've read numerous books on the D-day landing and subsequent campaigns and most seem to write generically about the build up and quickly get to the actual landings. James Holland doesn't do this, he's so meticulous he goes well back to the pre-planning stage and shows the reasons for wanting to invade and how they originally had 1943 as their target year and why. He looks deeply into every person involved in the major decisions but more importantly he looks at individual characters from lower down the ranks and in different and opposing armies and Air Forces.
Holland has accessed personal journals and letters to enable him to understand the impact these big decisions had on the ordinary service men and women and he weaves their stories into the bigger picture at each stage of the book. He takes a very deep look at the German forces available for battle in France and the logistical and political difficulties they faced and how this affected their ability to confront the allied juggernaut that was arrayed before them.
Holland lays bare flaws in allied tactical thinking, especially when combining Infantry with Tanks and the steps taken to overcome them when they were faced with the reality of a drawn out campaign in ground not necessarily of their own choosing such as the bocage country. Holland also shows the clashes of personalities on both sides and how they were managed. He especially shows that our tactics whereby using technology such as artillery and air power we saved countless allied lives and avoided a WW1 style bloodbath but the Germans were willing to use flesh and high casualties to achieve their aims. (So too were the Russians but that's a different book)
I suppose the favourite part of this book was the part where he reveals how few Tiger Tanks were ever present in the campaign, Panzer mk4's looked like a baby Tiger which might have caused the confusion, but there were nowhere near the number of Tigers we've been led to believe. He shows that the Tiger and Panther Tanks were over engineered and mechanically unreliable. They were also vulnerable to the British Sherman Firefly Tank that mounted a 17 pounder gun which was more powerful that the vaunted 88 millimetre gun widely used by the German's and knocked out an enormous number of German tanks including their Panzer Ace Michael Wittman, but this has never received the widespread coverage it deserved at the time. (Yes I have been to Bovington Tank Museum)
Holland is at long last righting this imbalance in history with his superbly researched and written book that gives insights from all the participants and is well worth a read for all serious historians and people with an interest in the general subject.
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