Review
Richard Holmes is everyone's favourite television battlefield guide. Having already taken us on two TV tours of Europe's most famous battlefields, he now embarks on a third tour of duty in a four-part series called Battle Honours to be broadcast on BBC2. This time, he looks at four major areas of combat in the Second World War, namely Alamein where the jetsam of war still lies in the desert, the attrition of Cassino in Italy where the monastery has been lovingly restored, Arnhem with those bridges, and the horrific impact of the RAF bombing offensive against Germany, both in loss of aircrew and ruination on the ground. In the programmes and the accompanying book, Holmes recreates the experience of what it was like to be involved in this combat through letters, diaries and interviews with veterans awarded campaign medals for their heroism. The previous two books of his TV series have gone on to become bestsellers, so no doubt we can expect the same from this title.
Product Description
This study of war skillfully clarifies the complexities of four major World War II military campaigns: El Alamein, Monte Cassino (Italy), Operation Market Garden (of which Arnhem formed a crucial part), and the Battle of Britain (the RAF's bomber offensive against Germany). The book originates in Holmes's conviction that the sacrifices made by British service personnel are not properly understood. It uses eye-witness accounts to illuminate the horror, confusion and sheer enormity of war, and puts this in the wider context of the conflict's broader strategy. As the 20th century, so deeply marked by war, slips away, this is the time to recognize the price that so many of its men and women paid for freedom.
