The Americans from Normandy to the German Border

Book excerpt: Rare World War II photographs detailing the massive American contribution to the 1944 campaign in northwest Europe from August to mid-December. Following the dramatic breakout from the Normandy bridgehead, events moved fast with the liberation of Paris quickly following and the Allies closed in on the German border. But the apparent collapse of the Nazis was illusory. As lines of communication lengthened and German resistance stiffened, the Allied High Command was divided on the right strategy. The ill-fated Operation Market Garden brought home the reality that the war would continue into 1945. The Siegfried Line was penetrated, and Aachen fell. But the American First Army suffered heavy casualties in the Hurtgen Forest. As winter set in, the third Army crossed the Moselle River and into the Saar. The stage was set for the costliest battle in American history—The Bulge, to be covered in the third and final volume of this trilogy. With his superb collection of images and grasp of the historic significance of the actions so graphically described, Brooke Blades’s latest book will be appreciated by all with an interest in the final stages of the Second World War.