after the allied victory their next major operation was the landings and subsequent campaign in Normandy which takes up at least a third of the book. James Holland has done a marvellous job of picking a representative group of individuals and following them through the book for those that survive that long! When I picked up the book in the library I was thrilled to see pages and pages of maps near the front of the book. James Holland has written this book about the Sherwood Rangers, a tank regiment which made it from North Africa, to D-Day, through the tribulations of Arnhem, Geilenkirchen and into Germany. Informed by never-before-seen documents, letters, photographs, and other artifacts from Sherwood Rangers' families--an ongoing fraternity--and by his own deep knowledge of the war, Holland offers a uniquely intimate portrait of the war at ground level, introducing heretofore unknowns such as Commanding Officer Stanley Christopherson, squadron commander John Semken, and Sergeant George Dring, and other memorable characters who helped the regiment become the single unit with the most battle honors of any ever in the British army.

I found this to be an interesting book and full of exciting stories as well as some really heartfelt and tragic ones as well. The author is one of the best at providing the background and technical information of the organization equipment used by and against the unit. Through compelling eye-witness testimony and James Holland's expert analysis, Brothers In Arms brings to vivid life the final bloody scramble across Europe and gives the most powerful account to date of what it was really like to fight in the dying days of World War Two. Although the 75mm couldn't penetrate the Panther and Tiger tanks from the front, the British 17-pounder mounted on the Sherman 'Firefly' as an 'aftermarket upgrade' could. He] ably sets up his main characters: men he had the good fortune to interview, or those who left detailed diaries, letters and reminiscences behind .As the losses mount through the war and continue to the very end you feel the losses and the terrible strain on the men that remain. In less than a month after D-Day they had already lost some 40 tank commanders, many shot through the head. James Holland is a well-known WW II historian and has written many books (and I've read most of them). One of the last cavalry units to ride horses into battle, the Sherwood Rangers were transformed into a “mechanized cavalry” of tanks in 1942.

Holland’s success is built in part on an engaging writing style and in part on a genuinely fresh approach to events that have been so often—and apparently definitively—recounted . The text is best suited for military buffs, as Holland delivers an intense, 400-page description of the regiment’s nearly yearlong battle across France, Belgium, and Germany.

Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. So often in the war, technological advances in weaponry developed faster than man’s effective means of operating it. Holland, author of World War II magazine’s “Need to Know” column, is a historian at the height of his powers with an enviable mastery of his subject.