Just came back from a short visit to Falaise pocket area. Great visit to Mont Ormel, Vimoutiers and some other places. Never have done any serious reading on the subject though. Could anyone advise me on one or two nice books to read? At least the story about what and how it all happened, if possible with nice maps and photos. Regards, Ronald.
In many ways there isn't really a good one. Sounds bizarre but the historiography is a complete mess. Study is far from complete and you end up with a very contrary vision of events on the ground, which frequently bare little resemblance to what really happened. In essence a huge amount of assumptions are taken as fact and have been steadily built upon to create a shaky version of events. German defence of the Gap on the north/south and east is often poorly explored, focusing rather too much on armour when most tanks were simply backing up Infanterie Divisions trying to hold back the Allied tide. Standard Divisional histories are essential, some great bits on Poles/Canadians which are readily available. For a broadly thematic view, all those listed below are a mix of useful and frustrating, so I recommend you pick up a mix (Tucker Jones is probably the weakest of the lot). Stephen Hart, Road to Falaise, (Stroud: Sutton, 2004). David C. Isby, Fighting the Breakout: The German Army in Normandy from ‘Cobra’ to the Falaise Gap, (London: Greenhill, 2004). Anthony Tucker Jones, Falaise: Flawed Victory, The Destruction of Panzergruppe West, August 1944, (Barnsley: Pen & Sword, 2008). James Lucas & James Barker, The Killing Ground: The Battle of the Falaise Gap, August 1944, (Speke: Batsford, 1978). Richard Hargreaves, The Germans in Normandy, (Barnsley: Pen and Sword, 2006).
A look at Heimdal's back catalogue would be wisest. French books are by a far margin the best on the subject. Their out-of-print stuff always fetches a good price on re-sale and in my opinion their older works are far superior to the current crop in terms of of photo quality and page count, Casement are the UK distributes but an Ebay search for Heimdal would be revealing. Books on Ebay France & Germany appear to be cheaper than UK & USA sales as do books bought from French bookshops even after postage is added.
Mixed quality here but some other titles to consider: Brigadier General Denis Whitaker and Shelagh Whitaker: "Victory at Falaise: The Soldiers' Story" Martin Blumensen "The Battle of the Generals" Carlo D'este's "Decision in Normandy" Samuel Mitcham's "Panzers in Normandy" or "Retreat to the Reich" Ken Ford "Falaise 1944: Death of an Army"
I've been reading through this from the net - HyperWar: The Victory Campaign: The Operations in North-West Europe, 1944-1945 - obviously its a Canadian point of view but so far what I have read has been good - Falaise is covered in Chapters 8, 9 & 10 Whilst you are awaiting delivery of your books TD
I'd say ATB's Ruckmarsch would be of interest to anyone looking at the August collapse. RÜCKMARSCH THEN AND NOW - After the Battle The usual ATB quality, load of pictures with solid captions and some fascinating coverage of specific strikes on convoys etc. Pretty sure it has decent Falaise stuff, certainly covers the period, but not flicked through it for a while. Whatever... Fits every criteria for a 'nice' book. Don't know anyone who hasn't been impressed on encountering it.
There is this free book, currently available on all Amazon platforms: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fine-Night...e=UTF8&qid=1507063991&sr=8-1&keywords=Falaise.
Ha ha. Thanks for reminding me. Thought I did not have any books but just checked and found Ruckmarch standing on my very own bookshelf! Will certainly also try and get one or more of the other books. Thanks for all the advise so far!
