Book Review: Six Armies in Normandy by John Keegan
John Keegan. The first and last word when it comes to military history. When other historians write about war, I would be very surprised if they do not mention or reference John Keegan.
Another great thing about John Keegan is he is British. This means he remembers to throw a bone to the other members of the Commonwealth, where applicable. I recall in one history of the First World War, the {American} author mentioned Sir Arthur Currie as an example of a fat general who was not worthless in that capacity. In Six Armies in Normandy, Canada merits a whole chapter. This is important as Canadians ignore, forget or otherwise write ourselves out of our own history.
As for the content of Six Armies in Normandy I do have some reservation. As an account, John Keegan, paints very broad brush strokes of the participants and the operations. So while he makes a point {as the title suggests} to hit on the major nations involved, he doesn't get into any great detail or depth about what's going on in Normandy. He also makes a point a point to hit on the major parts of the Normandy operations. The Airborne assault, the sea landings, the infantry fighting, the tank battles etc... though again, he does not get into a hyper detailed account.
He also hits on some of the lesser known participants. Canada and even more unknown to posterity, were the divisions of Polish troops that in fact played a pivotal part in closing the Fallaise Gap.
In general, Six Armies in Normandy is a concise and well written, account that would probably satisfy the mildly interested and not bore the overly interested.
8.0/10