Synopsis
Recounts the defense of Mortain by one American infantry division against the attack of three German panzer divisions and explains the stategic significance of the battle
Reviews
This dramatic military history recounts the little-known WW II defense of the French town of Mortain by the 30th Division, a National Guard outfit whose troops hailed mostly from Tennessee and the Carolinas. By stopping the German counteroffensive at Mortain, the "Old Hickory" Division saved the D-Day invasion forces from being pushed back to the Normandy beaches and gave the Allied high command enough time to bring pressure against both flanks of the German thrust. Featherston, a journalist with the Durham, N.C., Herald-Sun , reviews the controversy over Gen. Omar Bradley's failure to close the gap, a measure that would have encircled large German formations in France and shortened the war. Two German armies escaped through the so-called Falaise Gap but, as the author points out, the Allies took 50,000 prisoners and counted 10,000 enemy dead. It was a great Allied victory--made possible by the heroic stand of the 30th Division at Mortain. Featherston's superb narrative illuminates the overall strategic situation while concentrating on that division's lonely struggle. His account explains why S.L.A. Marshall, the Army's official historian, picked the 30th as the finest division in the European theater. Illustrations.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
American National Guard units have often been disparaged for their combat performance during World War II. This book, by a veteran journalist for the Durham, North Carolina, Herald Sun , sets the record straight in dramatic fashion for at least one such outfit, the 30th "Old Hickory" Infantry Division. For several days, one of its regiments heroically fought off a major German counterattack designed to roll back the Normandy invasion. Like all unit histories, this one is stuffed with names, personalities, and hometowns, but the action is fast-moving and will captivate the general reader. Featherston takes the 30th from its founding through its final battles and ends up with a useful study of a typical wartime citizen-soldier outfit. For most libraries.
- Raymond L. Puffer, U.S. Air Force History Prog., Los Angeles
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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