Hello all,
I thought I'd share a book with you that I recently enjoyed.
"Victory at Falaise: A Soldier's Story" By Brig-Gen (Ret.) Denis Whitaker, and Shelagh Whitaker. (Harper Collins Canada) Published in 2000
The timeline follows from the Normandy Invasion to the closing of the Falaise pocket. It deals in many prospectives, from first hand accounts of the fighting, to tactics and overall objectives of both sides. It includes all the nations that fought, American, British, Canadian, French, Polish, and German. Includes many of the individual's personal photographs, including some of some very young looking Fallschirmjagers and Hitler Jugend units.
I found it to be a very informative read, highlighting the many difficulties encountered, and efforts to surpass them by both sides. The hardest 105 days for the Western allies in the war.
--Mike
Victory at Falaise: A Soldier's Story by Denis Whitaker
Moderator: sniper1shot
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Wurger
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Victory a Falaise
All of the Whitaker's books are interesting reads. With Denis Whitaker's recent passing, Canada not only lost a hero, but a very capable historian.
If you liked VaF, you should definitely check out "Tug of War" and "Dieppe". The book is particularly intriguing as it contrasts Mr. Whitaker's and other Allied soldier's experiences at Dieppe with those of their German adversaries. The book provides an in-depth investigation of the planning of the operation at all levels.
Regards,
Wurger
If you liked VaF, you should definitely check out "Tug of War" and "Dieppe". The book is particularly intriguing as it contrasts Mr. Whitaker's and other Allied soldier's experiences at Dieppe with those of their German adversaries. The book provides an in-depth investigation of the planning of the operation at all levels.
Regards,
Wurger
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Wurger
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- Location: Establishing a 5th column in your country . . .
Denis Whitaker and Dieppe
Mr. Whitaker passed away not too long after Victory at Faliase was published. Sometime last year, if I recall. One of my professors, Terry Copp, was a very good friend of his and was at the funeral.
The Dieppe book is quite good. Whitaker, as the senior officer to get off the beach unhurt, provides a great deal of detail that you don't find in other books.
The German content is quite interesting, with much of it being collected from interrogations conducted with prisoners captured at Dieppe in 1942, and with men captured in the later campaigns toward the end of the war. The Canadian military took great pains to examine just what went wrong during the raid.
Regards,
Wurger
The Dieppe book is quite good. Whitaker, as the senior officer to get off the beach unhurt, provides a great deal of detail that you don't find in other books.
The German content is quite interesting, with much of it being collected from interrogations conducted with prisoners captured at Dieppe in 1942, and with men captured in the later campaigns toward the end of the war. The Canadian military took great pains to examine just what went wrong during the raid.
Regards,
Wurger
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Michael Dorosh
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Whitaker
The book on Dieppe can be easily dismissed as apologia. While I have respect for Whitaker's service as the only unwounded officer of his brigade to land at Dieppe and return, and for his attempts to incorporate German research into his writings (something other Canadian historians rarely bother to do), I can't recommend his book. Loring-Villa's book UNAUTHORIZED ACTION: MOUNTBATTEN AND THE DIEPPE RAID is far better.
Whitaker's book does have some very good first person accounts - often by Whitaker himself - and discusses much that isn't covered in THE Dieppe book, The Shame and the Glory by Terence Robertson. Still, the suggestion that D-Day owed its success to Dieppe is ludicrous. No lessons had been learned, or sufficiently few to have made the raid not worthwhile.
One should ask one's self (as Whitaker apparently did not) - if Dieppe had not occurred, would the Allies have done things any differently in Normandy in June 1944?
Aside from minor details of communications and procedures, I fail to believe - nor does Whitaker present a case proving - that this would occur. By June 1944, amphibious operations were second nature to the Allies, and any "secrets" that Whitaker claims to have been unlocked at Dieppe has already made themselves apparent at Gallipoli, Wake Island, and later invasions - or would have made themselves apparent during the rehearsals for Normandy.
In short - Whitaker's book is worth reading, but there are much better books on the politics behind the raid, and Whitaker's conclusion - that Normandy's success was due to sacrifice at Dieppe - are largely unsupported.
One can't blame him; he saw many of his best friends gunned down on the chert - if I was him, I would want to salvage some meaning from the whole bloody mess too. Doesn't exactly make for impartial reporting.
Whitaker's book does have some very good first person accounts - often by Whitaker himself - and discusses much that isn't covered in THE Dieppe book, The Shame and the Glory by Terence Robertson. Still, the suggestion that D-Day owed its success to Dieppe is ludicrous. No lessons had been learned, or sufficiently few to have made the raid not worthwhile.
One should ask one's self (as Whitaker apparently did not) - if Dieppe had not occurred, would the Allies have done things any differently in Normandy in June 1944?
Aside from minor details of communications and procedures, I fail to believe - nor does Whitaker present a case proving - that this would occur. By June 1944, amphibious operations were second nature to the Allies, and any "secrets" that Whitaker claims to have been unlocked at Dieppe has already made themselves apparent at Gallipoli, Wake Island, and later invasions - or would have made themselves apparent during the rehearsals for Normandy.
In short - Whitaker's book is worth reading, but there are much better books on the politics behind the raid, and Whitaker's conclusion - that Normandy's success was due to sacrifice at Dieppe - are largely unsupported.
One can't blame him; he saw many of his best friends gunned down on the chert - if I was him, I would want to salvage some meaning from the whole bloody mess too. Doesn't exactly make for impartial reporting.