Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/News/February 2022/Book reviews


 * By Hawkeye7



The author of this book is John A. English, a Canadian Army officer who was a professor of strategy at the US Naval War College. He is best known for his The Canadian Army and the Normandy Campaign, a seminal re-examination of the Canadian Army's role. This book offers a short biography of Bernard Montgomery, and an account of the Canadian Army's role in the Second World War. Before the war, the Canadian government completely neglected the army, and as a result, it had to expand without much of a cadre of officers to build on.

Enter Montgomery, one of the British Army's most innovative thinkers, and most importantly, someone who knew not just how to train troops, but how to train the trainers. The book recounts how this came about. The Canadians had the good fortune to come under Montgomery's command when he led South Eastern Command in 1942. Canadian divisions subsequently served under Montgomery in Sicily and Italy in 1943 and 1944, and then in the campaign in northwest Europe in 1944 and 1945. Montgomery played a key role in weeding out the unfit and promoting the best, notably Canada's most successful general, Guy Simonds, although being a British Army officer he could only advise but not promote or remove them himself.

English offers a very positive portrait of Montgomery, in stark contrast to conventional American accounts. He demonstrates the sensitivity with which Montgomery handled the Canadian Army, and builds to an argument that they were better off under the British than they would have been under the Americans, who were not accustomed to dealing with allies. Montgomery's popularity with the British and Canadian troops is explained, and his frequent visits to every single Canadian battalion and and armoured regiment went a long way towards this. English incorporates the latest scholarship, which is particularly noticeable when he reaches Montgomery's post-war thinking.

English argues that Montgomery's influence on the Canadian Army was even greater than on the British. He chronicles how it influenced important decisions, such as placing the Canadian brigade in Germany under the British Army of the Rhine, and how Montgomery's disciples dominated the Canadian Army for a generation. If (like me) you've read biographies of Montgomery and books about the Canadian Army in the Second Army then much of this is not new, but the central thesis is challenging and thought-provoking.

Publishing details:




 * By Nick-D

A House in the Mountains is a history of the role women played in the Italian resistance in northern Italy during World War II. It was written by the historian and journalist Caroline Moorehead, and is the third in a series of books by her on women in occupied Europe.

I knew virtually nothing about this topic before reading the book, and found it fascinating. It is focused on the actions and experiences of four women who lived and operated in the area around Turin, with a particular emphasis on Ada Gobetti. Moorehead provides considerable detail on the factors that drove women to join the resistance and the roles they played. The scope of the book is impressive; it confidently covers everything between high politics to the individual experiences of the four women and their friends and associates. Moorehead is also an excellent writer, and the book is very readable. The end result is a work that convincingly demonstrates the vital role of women in the resistance while also providing a very stark and useful account of the partisan war in northern Italy.

It's hard to fault this book, but it would have benefited from more maps - a general map of Italy and one of the Piedmont aren't really sufficient given the amount of detail in the narrative. Some of the photos also lack captions.

I'd strongly recommend this book both as an interesting exploration of a little-remembered aspect of the war and as a good read.

Publishing details: