Book Review: 'The Battle of the Generals: The Untold Story of the Falaise Pocket-The Campaign That Should Have Won World War II'

(C) 1993 William Morrow & Co. 

Martin Blumenson's The Battle of the Generals: The Untold Story of the Falaise Gap – The Campaign That Should Have Won World War II is an interesting, though never quite captivating study of the controversial Battle of the Falaise Gap, the climax of Operation Overlord in August of 1944.

Blumenson, author of Breakout and Pursuit (1963) and an eminent military historian, focuses on the "big picture" as he focuses on what he frankly believes was the Allies' biggest blunder in the campaign in Northwest Europe: the failure of the Allied armies to close the Falaise Gap and trap the shattered remnants of two German armies west of the Seine River. Blumenson states point-blank that had Eisenhower, Bradley, and Montgomery paid more attention to the immediate goal of destroying the German army in Normandy instead of being diverted by visions of a triumphal march into Germany, many German troops and their equipment would have been sealed in a huge pocket and the war could have ended in 1944.

Instead, American, British, and Canadian generals, except for George Patton, opted to stick to the Overlord plan, often passing up promising tactical opportunities and, as Blumenson often says, playing it safe.

I found this book interesting in its even-handed approach of not going the "it was all Monty's fault" route, though that British commander's flaws as an army group leader are pointed out. Bradley and Eisenhower don't escape Blumenson's critical gaze; indeed, it was Bradley's desire to keep the more dashing Patton on a short leash that the author says was a critical factor for the Germans' last-minute escape from a potentially disastrous double envelopment. Monty and the British high command, of course, get a fair share of the criticism, including the prickly personality quirks of the 21st Army Group's commander and his penchant for wanting a "tidy" battlefield.

As the title implies, The Battle of the Generals deals more with high-level strategy rather than the more compelling "you-are-there" eyewitness-accounts in the style of Cornelius Ryan's The Longest Day or Stephen Ambrose's Citizen Soldiers. Students of military history may find this book fascinating, but readers seeking a more involving human-interest book may be disappointed.