<div>&ldquo;The fighting spirit of Allied paratroopers comes through with exciting clarity&rdquo; in this account of two separate invasions of Germany in World War II (Kirkus Reviews). A main selection of the Military Book Club In September 1944, as the Allies drove across Europe after Normandy, British field marshal Bernard Montgomery launched Operation Market Garden to secure the lower Rhine&mdash;Germany&rsquo;s last great natural barrier in the west&mdash;and passage to Berlin. Though Allied soldiers outnumbered Germans two to one, they suffered devastating casualties and were forced to retreat. Then, in March 1945, Montgomery orchestrated another airborne attack on the Rhine, called Operation Plunder. This time the Allies overwhelmed the German defenses, secured the eastern bank, and began their final march into the heart of the Third Reich. Including detailed maps and personal accounts from those on both sides of the battle, this &ldquo;vivid war story&rdquo; examines Allied attempts to breach Germany&rsquo;s borders, and illustrates how lessons learned from failure helped form the second plan of attack&mdash;and seal Germany&rsquo;s defeat (Publishers Weekly).</div>

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Crossing the Rhine

<div>A &ldquo;masterly account&rdquo; of the juggernaut offensive that conquered France&mdash;but also marked the beginning of the end for Nazi Germany in World War II (Kirkus Reviews). In the spring of 1940, the German forces launched an attack on France that combined superb intelligence, cutting edge strategy, and new technology&mdash;the blitzkrieg, or &ldquo;lightning war.&rdquo; In just six weeks, it would achieve what their fathers had failed to do in all four years of the First World War. It was a stunning victory. But here, leading British military historian and academic Lloyd Clark argues that much of our understanding of this victory is based on myth. Far from being a foregone conclusion, Hitler&rsquo;s plan could easily have failed had the Allies been even slightly less inept or the Germans less fortunate. The Germans recognized that success depended not only on surprise, but also avoiding a protracted struggle for which they were not prepared&mdash;making defeat a very real possibility. Their surprise victory proved the apex of their achievement; far from being undefeatable, Clark argues, the Battle of France revealed Germany and its armed forces to be highly vulnerable. And Hitler dismissed this fact as he planned his next move&mdash;and greatest blunder: the invasion of the Soviet Union. In this eye-opening reassessment, complete with maps and illustrations, Clark &ldquo;presents a well-balanced narrative that highlights the knife-edge victory of the German forces&rdquo; and reveals how very close the Nazi war machine came to catastrophe in the early days of World War II (New York Journal of Books). </div>

Blitzkrieg

<div>A harrowing and incisive &ldquo;high-quality battle history&rdquo; from one of the world&rsquo;s finest military historians (Booklist). The Allied attack of Normandy beach and its resultant bloodbath have been immortalized in film and literature, but the US campaign on the beaches of Western Italy reigns as perhaps the deadliest battle of World War II&rsquo;s western theater. In January 1944, about six months before D-Day, an Allied force of thirty-six thousand soldiers launched one of the first attacks on continental Europe at Anzio, a small coastal city thirty miles south of Rome. The assault was conceived as the first step toward an eventual siege of the Italian capital. But the advance stalled and Anzio beach became a death trap. After five months of brutal fighting and monumental casualties on both sides, the Allies finally cracked the German line and marched into Rome on June 5, the day before D-Day. Richly detailed and fueled by extensive archival research of newspapers, letters, and diaries&mdash;as well as scores of original interviews with surviving soldiers on both sides of the trenches&mdash;Anzio is a &ldquo;relentlessly fascinating story with plenty of asides about individuals&rsquo; experiences&rdquo; (Publishers Weekly). &ldquo;Masterly . . . A heartbreaking, beautifully told story of wasted sacrifice.&rdquo; &mdash;The Washington Post</div>

Anzio

<div>&ldquo;A comprehensive analysis of WWII&rsquo;s greatest land battle and one of history&rsquo;s greatest armor engagements.&rdquo; &mdash;Publishers Weekly On July 5, 1943, the greatest land battle in history began when Nazi and Red Army forces clashed near the town of Kursk, on the western border of the Soviet Union. Code named &ldquo;Operation Citadel,&rdquo; the German offensive would cut through the bulge in the eastern front that had been created following Germany&rsquo;s retreat at the Battle of Stalingrad. But the Soviets, well-informed about Germany&rsquo;s plans through their network of spies, had months to prepare. Two million men supported by six thousand tanks, thirty-five thousand guns, and five thousand aircrafts convened in Kursk for an epic confrontation that was one of the most important military engagements in history, the epitome of &ldquo;total war.&rdquo; It was also one of the most bloody, and despite suffering seven times more casualties, the Soviets won a decisive victory that became a turning point in the war. With unprecedented access to the journals and testimonials of the officers, soldiers, political leaders, and citizens who lived through it, The Battle of the Tanks is the definitive account of an epic showdown that changed the course of history. &ldquo;A stellar account of the Battle of Kursk in 1943.&rdquo; &mdash;Booklist</div>

Lloyd Clark
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Books By Lloyd Clark (4 Books)

Crossing the Rhine

Blitzkrieg

Anzio

The Battle of the Tanks

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© 2024 OPEN ROAD INTEGRATED MEDIA

Lloyd ClarkFollow this author

Books By Lloyd Clark (4 Books)

Crossing the Rhine

Blitzkrieg

Anzio

The Battle of the Tanks

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© 2024 OPEN ROAD INTEGRATED MEDIA

Lloyd Clark
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