Masters of War

Good morning bookies. Sorry for the delay since the last posting.

*** The new iloveamysterynewsletter has posted everyone. My review of James Benn's new Billy Boyle mystery is on the front page, with a Black Diamond. Evil For Evil is every bit as good as the previous entries, if not better.

***It would be hard to argue that General George Patton and Field Marshals Rommel and Montgomery were not the most famous field commanders for their respective countries during World War II. And in the case for Patton and Rommel a case could be made they were also the best tacticians for their countries, although with Montgomery making that case would be a real stretch. Nevertheless, when the war ended he was easily the most powerful commander in the British Army, so in that respect he would also qualify for inclusion in this book, Patton, Montgomery, Rommel, Master of War by Terry Brighton.

The fatal flaw with so many British historians writing about Montgomery and Patton is the tendency for them to find Montgomery as some sort of demi-god who out-thought and out-fought Rommel to finally kick the Germans out of Africa, then excelled in the campaigns in Sicily, France and Germany. The truth, of course, is somewhat less shining. And it appears that in his new book Brighton does not fall into the trap of Montgomery adulation that so mars the many books that have previously tackled this subject.

Masters of War