D-Day to Berlin: Victory in Europe Day by Day

The campaign in northwest Europe from June 1944 to May 1945 involved some of the heaviest fighting of World War II and covered an enormous range of different forms of combat - from the landings on the D-Day beaches to the parachute drops at Arnhem, and from the close-quarters slogging match in the French bocage country to the armoured warfare of the "Battle of the Bulge". It ended with the German Army in total defeat, pushed back across its frontiers by Anglo-American (and Canadian) forces that were masters of the art of modern warfare. This great success was not without its difficulties, however. The Germans proved a formidable foe, and the Allied commanders fought bitter internal feuds in pursuit of their own views of how to achieve ultimate victory. There were many sub plots and side issues - such as the race to get to the "V" weapon sites before they could destroy London, or the way that the American army took the Remagen Bridge in the nick of time to cross the Rhine - and the whole story has rarely been told in such a concise and involving way, interweaving the day by day narrative with more detailed essays and contrasting viewpoints.