The Whitakers are the authors of several books of military history, including Dieppe: From Tragedy to Triumph. In Victory at Falaise, aided by military historian Terry Copp, they examine the Battle of Falaise, which ended the Allies’ long struggle to break out from the Normandy beachhead in the summer of 1944.

Falaise was a brutal affair, as the soldiers of six nations fought at close quarters among the hedgerows of Northern France. It was a true soldiers’ battle, with the fate of armies hanging on the success or failure of small, isolated groups of men. The Allied weaponry was often inferior to that of the Germans, but this was offset by sheer quantity and a total superiority in the air. Incredible acts of bravery were common on both sides, and these form the core of this book.

Victory at Falaise looks at the many individual battles fought that August, such as the one on Hill 314 overlooking Mortain, where some 600 surrounded Americans held off thousands of counter-attacking Germans. Testimony from soldiers on both sides, and from French civilians caught in the middle, makes these accounts especially vivid. The book introduces such interesting characters as Lieutenant-General Guy Simonds, Canada’s youngest corps commander, and his flamboyant counterpart, Standartenfuhrer Kurt Meyer. Chapters on the average soldier’s life – from medical services to rest and relaxation – are interspersed with the main action.

Victory at Falaise moves along rapidly and is written dramatically, although occasionally too much so, with perhaps too many “desperate” battles and “formidable” enemies. The final chapter, by Terry Copp, outlines various historians’ perspectives on the battle and places it within a broader context – however, it feels tacked on and does not quite constitute the “reassessment of the Battle of Normandy” that the publicity promises. That is the realm of a more academic approach to history.

Nevertheless, the general reader who wants a sense of what that generation went through will not be disappointed. The book provides a readable, well-researched introduction to the Normandy battles and does the soldiers of both sides justice.