James A. Wood (1) (1978–)

Not too bad of a book. This is a reprinting of the translated Army Group B reports translated after the war by the U.S. Military. The editor has added large amounts of information as well. What was most interesting about this book was the description by the Germans of the absolute titanic superiority the Allies had over the Germans in artillery ammunition. This is one area that really gets overlooked by historians when talking about the Germans and Allies WWII. Often historians focus on the large advantage that the Allies had in the air and with tanks, but the area where the Allies had an unassailable advantage, was in artillery ammunition. In fact, the Dupuy Institute came up with the formulas for showing the tactical prowess of the combatants during the war, they usually left out numbers of artillery rounds fired to determining factor. I believe this was a major oversight on their part, as clearly this had a huge impact on the battles in the West and in Italy. Here is a quote from page 99 "....after having bombarded the area during the previous night with naval, land artillery of all calibers (80,000 rounds)...". 80,000 rounds fired off in less then 24 hours against a divisional area!! That is beyond belief. Even during the battle of Kursk, the German divisions were lucky to fire off 4,000-5,000 rounds in 24 hours. 80,000 rounds was beyond anything the Germans could imagine. This was the biggest take away from this book. The titanic superiority of Allied Artillery Ammunition.… (plus d'informations)