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Colossal Cracks: Montgomery's 21st Army Group in Northwest Europe, 1944-45 (Stackpole Military History)
 
 
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Colossal Cracks: Montgomery's 21st Army Group in Northwest Europe, 1944-45 (Stackpole Military History) (Paperback)

by Stephen Ashley Hart (Author) "This study examines the manner in which the 21st Army Group conducted the Northwest Europe campaign of 6 June 1944-8 May 1945 ..." (more)
4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
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"Incisive, eminently objective, and literate, this thoughtful study advances considerably our understanding of the war's most controversial field commander and his Normandy campaign."

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A reinterpretation of the British Army's conduct in the crucial 1944-45 Northwest Europe campaign, this work examines the Colossal Cracks operational technique employed by Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery's Anglo-Canadian 21st Army Group. Rooted in concerns about morale and casualties, Colossal Cracks was a cautious, firepower-laden approach that involved the concentration of massive force at points of German weakness. Hart argues that Montgomery and his two senior subordinates handled this formation more effectively than some scholars have suggested and that Colossal Cracks represented the most appropriate weapon the British Army could develop under the circumstances.
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4.4 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The best assessment of Montgomery's 21st Army Gp, 7 Feb 2008
By Mr. Stephen Prince (Southsea, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
It is excellent to see this exceptional book published at a very reasonable price in paperback. The hardback cost has kept the analysis to too small a circle of experts. This book is not a narrative history of the role of 21st Army Group in North-West Europe but provides a convincing analytical account of the factors that both shaped the army and determined how it operated in action. Most importantly Stephen Hart demonstrates how the Army Group fitted within the large picture of the Allies joint and combined campaign to achieve success.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars The truth - at last!, 5 Jan 2009
By Mr. Stephen Banks "Garter Blue" (England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This is a book everyone interested in the Normandy campaign should read. I have only two regrets. Firstly, it has taken almost half a century for the truth to come out (the author even charts the progression from self-aggrandising or bilious accounts by the combatants to, as the 21st century dawned, more realistic and better researched accounts). My second gripe is the stilted prose of a Senior Lecturer at Sandhurst.

Having said that, Hart has mined the archives very well indeed and shed light on so many aspects which have been ignored. For example, far too much has been made of Montgomery's personal foibles, to the detriment of the constraints and imperatives which he - and his two army commanders - Dempsey and Crerar - had to work within. Among them was the fact that this was literally Britain's last army, which had to be preserved - and was. Faced by a superior German army (an equally underrated aspect of the conflict) the chosen path for a force made up of largely untested conscripts included heavy use of firepower via artillery and the air force. Ironically, while many critics, including the Americans, failed to recognise what was going on, the Germans were on the ball and called it Materielschlacht.

Some of the chapters were, for me, page-turners as I trod unfamiliar ground and Hart deserves much praise: hopefully future historians will be less biased and present the Normandy conflict and the European consequences more accurately. The only reason I have not given this book 5 stars is because of the poor style. If you can cope with that, this book is a rare treat and genuine eye-opener.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Difficult but Ultimately Rewarding, 4 April 2009
By Big Uig (London) - See all my reviews
This book is not easy to review. The author has used a taxonomic approach - death by lists - in his analysis of Montgomery and his senior commanders, and his message that they were a much more competent lot than many of us might have thought is in danger of getting lost. There is not much new here but the synthesis is very useful, and when the author allows history and his research in the Public Records Office to do his analysis for him, his story becomes much more convincing and very readable.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book - everything you need to know about how 21st Army Group fought the campaign
Hart discusses the operational technique, dubbed Colossal Cracks, used by Montgomery's 21st Army Group in Northwest Europe Campaign of the Second World War; the book goes a long... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Carl

4.0 out of 5 stars Balanced assessment of British combat performance in Normandy
Too much military history around Normandy eulogises German tactical perfomance and either eulogises or castigates Montgomery's generalship. Read more
Published 2 months ago by A. Davis

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