Good morning, i am looking for a book on what happened after the Falaise Pocket to Berlin. Any suggestions.
As Idler says a very large subject - just a few books out of many John Buckley, Monty’s Men:The British Army and the Liberation of Europe 1944-5 (2013) Robin Neillands, The Battle for the Rhine, 1944, (2005). Denis & Shelagh Whitaker, Rhineland:The Battle to End the War (2000) Geoffrey Picot, Accidental Warrior: In the Front Line from Normandy till Victory (1993) Patrick Delaforce, Invasion of the Third Reich: War & Peace (2011) Joachim Ludewig, Ruckzug: The German Retreat from France,1944 (2012)
If you're coming in cold, one suggestion might be Chester Wilmot's Struggle for Europe. It's an oldie but should be a good overview before jumping into all the still-raging controversies. He was a journalist embedded - to use the modern parlance - at a reasonably high level so was quite close to the story. Relatively short and sweet, when perhaps it shouldn't be, is the British official history Victory in the West Vol II by Ellis (it's thinner than Vol I which only covers Normandy to the Seine). It will also mention the Canadians but they also have their own version.
These are a part of the U.S. Army in World War II publications and are available free online in PDF: CMH Publications Catalog - THE LORRAINE CAMPAIGN CMH Publications Catalog - THE SIEGFRIED LINE CAMPAIGN CMH Publications Catalog - THE ARDENNES: BATTLE OF THE BULGE CMH Publications Catalog - RIVIERA TO THE RHINE EDIT: I should have also added this publication to the list, https://history.army.mil/html/books/007/7-9-1/CMH_Pub_7-9-1.pdf
The Canadian history is online HyperWar: The Victory Campaign: The Operations in North-West Europe, 1944-1945
The Battle for Germany (1969) by Maj-Gen Hubert Essame deals specifically with the post-Normandy campaign in the West. Very readable. Highly recommended. The Long Left Flank (1988) by Jeffrey Williams is about the First Canadian Army's campaign after Normandy into Holland and Germany. May be a bit restricted for what you're looking for, but good for the battles along the French coastline into Belgium. Cheers, Dan.
