'Falaise - The Flawed Victory'

And here's yet another Falaise book....'Falaise - The Flawed Victory' by Anthony Tucker-Jones ( Pen & Sword, ISBN 184415760-1 ). This one continues the welcome trend of considering Normandy from the German angle.

You'll immediately have spotted the first problem - P&S, my least favourite WWII publisher. As with so many P&S tiles, this one relies almost totally on secondary sources. There's a fairly good bibliography, but there are some surprising omissions - Tieke's 'Firestorm...' perhaps being the main one.

The book - which is sub-sub-titled 'The Destruction Of Panzergruppe West August 1944' - doesn't really add anything fresh to the 'Falaise controversy' and in fact, there isn't an enormous amount in it about the actual fighting at Falaise.

A waste of time then ? Well, no - because the author does attempt something new in a smaller format ; the book gives a broad outline, unit by unit, of each Panzer formation involved in Normandy with a brief pre- and post-history, together with what they actually did in Normandy. This has of course already been done ( brilliantly ) in Lefevre's 'Panzers In Normandy - Then & Now'. But that is a very large format book - this one is far 'handier'.

There are also some fairly good photos. All in all, not the worst P&S book I've seen ; it makes a good companion volume to 'The Germans In Normandy' by Richard Hargreaves ( who has contributed to this forum ).

So - more a book for the Normandy specialist or Falaise completist ( like me ! )

 

Unfortunately Martin there seems to b e a trend at the moment for so called author / historians to bring out " new " books which in fact add nothing to the subject but regurgitate some of the better works which have gone before but add a few new photos and some nice new coloured maps !!!

Maybe i'm getting to cynical !!

Or maybe like many on this Forum i have enough knowledge myself that we can quickly sort the wheat from the chaff and are looking forward to something new which expands and takes forward the subjects we are interested in.

Must admit if a book doesn't come up to the standards of say Jason Marks brilliant " Death of the leaping Horseman " about 24 PD at Stalingrad then i quickly loose interest.

regards

Paul

 

Quite right - I'd hesitate to recommend this book to someone such as yourself, Paul !

 

Thanx for the info , Martin!

At least now I know what to think of the book if I see it, and that´s priceless!

As we once again say the magic word "Normandy" I must tell this "joke" from a Finnish Ps2 game magazine:

The reviewer says that during recent years he has been goingn through his Groundhog day movie; Back in Normandy back in Normandy back in Normandy...

I cannot see the problem here...What´s wrong with Normandy?

 

I think the book is terrible. The Villers Bocage account is about the worst I have ever read. The author has taken quotes from Wittmann's death on 8/8/44 and attributed them to 13/6/44- just one of many howlers. Will Fey's acount of Normandy has been swallowed whole. I note 3 references to 'the first and last tanks were knocked out trapping the others' and the usual 'Allied tanks milled/fled in panic'. I think the author simply read all he could find and made the mistake of using some very dodgy accounts.

 

Have to say that I agree with you, m.kenny. Since my earlier postings, I've read further into - and given up - on it.

 

..you're getting cynical ?.... why do people do it, what makes them even think they can add anything to what has gone before having done little or no original research - is it just a money-making excercise, or is it just vanity, pure & simple on their part. Obviously the whole process is driven by the publisher - P&S exist to make money, not to bring enlightenment to the masses - bottom line. I suspect the manuscript was unsolicited and it has been printed up as cheaply as possible - no editing, no peer review, no proofing or correcting. The author is no doubt thrilled to see his name in print - he's not received any cash up front but been told to enjoy the adulation and wait for his royalty cheques to arrive....sucker !

I recall reading that Hargreaves even ended up financing the cover artwork for his own book with P&S out of his own pocket !! I think I'd have told them where to go....

 

....but not on the WWII Forums !

 

Not the cover, thankfully. Had to pay for the images, maps and index though which was not cheap... For my Poland book, Axis History Factbook: Review - Blitzkrieg Unleashed (sorry, shameless plug ) I'm doing the indexing myself to save £500. A friend and I drew the maps, but the images cost me £500-£600 at a guess.

For those fearing another re-hash, fear not, for there is a wealth of material never seen in English before. My bibliography for the book can be found here: Feldgrau.net • View topic - Poland 1939 - Bibliography

It took almost as long to compile the bibliography as it did write the book...

 

..thanks for the correction Richard. P&S made you pay for the index !? Not only did you provide them - evil publisher - with a first class work which no doubt you laboured long & hard over, but they took money off you as well ...?

All I can say is good luck with the new work ...I find it a terrible shame you have to line some-one else's pocket first just to get your writing out there..

 

I must admit to being surprised to paying for the index; the images I can live with.

Still, only another £20K to go before I break even.

 

Well, your book is still on my Normandy Shelf, Richard - regrettably, it won't be joined by 'Flawed Victory'.....

 

Thanks Martin! That's nice to know. There's a paperback version coming out in the autumn if the hardback takes up too much space

I did wonder about the new Falaise book as the author's previous work is, I think, based on secondary sources. Be interesting to see if he quotes my work inside it!

 

I've just started reading this, after having luckily picked it up for half-price a week ago. It's not the worst book on Normandy I've read, but it is far from greatness. Indeed, as the author admits in the preface, it's not really about Falaise at all, more a general overview of the experiences of the armoured divisions under it. As such, it's just about acceptable if you're a "Normandy newbie".

Halder, you may (or indeed may not!) be pleased to learn that The Germans in Normandy is cited in the bibliography, indeed it is highly recommended, as it should be. However, this book contains the great and annoying sin of not including any endnotes or footnotes or any kind of referencing at all, so who knows to what extent he used it.

-SC

 

Actually I'd be disappointed if it wasn't used, if only to send people scurrying off for the source material. P&S don't like footnotes/endnotes as a rule. I had to chop them down by about half which is why they're a bit confusing. I've tried to make it clearer in the Poland book.

 

....I'm surprised they haven't asked you to cut back the bibliography...don't tell me, they already did..?

 

Not yet, although it is fairly long...

 

Some notes are better than none, and I didn't think the notes in your book were particularly confusing. Any reason why P&S aren't fond of them? I always get suspicious if there are no references whatsoever in a text.

-SC

 

I think it's because it makes the book look academic rather than popular reading. Personally I put notes in for two reasons: to prove I've not made it up and to guide other readers to the sources if they wish to do more.

 

Well, I am certainly no academic but I quite like notes - within reason - and consider a bibliography absolutely essential. I tend to distrust books which have no source references - I find myself thinking ' Does this guy keep all this information in his head ?'