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A propos de l'auteur

Jeffrey Plowman is a research biochemist by profession, and he has had a keen interest in military history for over thirty-five years. He has made a special study of New Zeeland armour and armoured units and he has published eight books as well as many articles and chapters on the subject. For this afficher plus book he has selected photographs from various private collections and public archives. Among his most recent publications are War in the Balkans: The Battle for Greece and Crete 1940-1941. afficher moins

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The 1941 campaign in Greece is not often covered by military historians, so it is refreshing to find this book covering this campaign. The author is not a full-time military historian and has focused his attention on the role of the New Zealand forces during the Second World War. As such, he is well qualified to write about the campaign in Greece as it involved Australian, New Zealand and British formations and units.

There are eleven chapters in the book, plus six appendices. The first two cover the political strategic issues that led to British and Commonwealth involvement in Greece. The political aspects are in many ways one of the most fascinating elements of the British deployment to Greece, as the Prime Minister and government swung backwards and forwards between being involved and not. This was a period in the Middle East where British and Commonwealth forces were severely stretched with several competing demands for limited resources. Chapter three covers the German strategic considerations in launching their invasions of Yugoslavia and Greece, with the next chapter explaining the rapid collapse of the former country.

Chapters five to ten inclusive are about the campaign in Greece itself and the eventual evacuation of British and Commonwealth forces from Greece. The last chapter provides a retrospective review of the German operation and while it was successful, the concept of Blitzkrieg was being overtaken by the events of war, and the economic and personnel dominance of the U.K., U.S.A. and U.S.S.R. combined. Greece was not the end of Blitzkrieg, as the invasion of the U.S.S.R. followed shortly afterwards using this form of warfare, but one can argue it was the beginning of the end.

The six appendices explain the composition of the opposing forces, the commanders on both sides, the movement of British and Commonwealth forces to Greece, British tank losses, the embarkations from Greece and casualties. There are sixteen pages of photographs in the centre of the book that add some additional context to the book. There are several maps in the book located within their relevant chapters.

My best recommendation about this book is that I have been using it as part of my research since I received it, which is why my review has been delayed. It is well-researched and written and should interest a wide range of military historians because of its subject areas.
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Signalé
RobPALMER | Dec 31, 2019 |
This book is one in the series of Images of War, which are photographic collections that are grouped together into themes for publication. As its title suggests, this book covers the Battle for Monte Cassio in Italy in early 1944. There are eleven chapters, breaking the photographs into specific elements of the overall battle. There are six main sources for the photographs, of which two are New Zealand organisations, and one is Polish. This ensures that there is a variety of images displaying different aspects of the battle.

My over-riding conclusion having digested the book (does one read a book of photographs?) is the nature of the terrain over which the Allied armoured units had to operate. The Allied shelling and bombing only made the situation worse, and one can sense why the Battles for Cassino were essentially infantry led.

It would be wrong to imply that there are only photographs in this book, as each chapter has a written introduction to place it in context. Having said that, the raison d’etre for the book are the photographs. I was pleased that I had not seen most, if not all, of these photographs before. Having just finished reading another book Monte Cassino, this one was very useful in providing a visual history of the events of early 1944.

On the basis of the quality of the photographs, this book is highly recommended to anyone with an interest in the Italian campaign of the Second World War, and the use of armour in that war.
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RobPALMER | Feb 25, 2019 |

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Œuvres
19
Membres
103
Popularité
#185,855
Évaluation
4.2
Critiques
2
ISBN
28
Favoris
1

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