"Best Books for WWII Brit/Canadian Battles NW Europe?" Topic

I'm especially interested in small unit actions and battles for the British and Canadians, fighting in Normandy through the end of the war. Detailed battle accounts of actions at the tip of the spear, would be greatly appreciated – tank troops and squadrons, combined forces actions (infantry and armor),and yes, even just infantry actions up through battalion, and even regimental unit size are of interest.

The battles in Normandy and the rest of France are a major focus for me, around Caen, Hill 112, etc., but events in Belgium and the Netherlands, on the northern shoulder of the Bulge, actions along the Scheldt, and battles in Germany would also be appreciated.

With the Jocks by Peter White is pretty good. All platoon level stuff post the D Day breakout and up to the end of the war.

There are many, many books. A few of my favourites

Mailed Fist by Foley
18 Platoon by Jary
So few came through by Lyndsay
Tank Tracks by Beale
Arnhem Spearhead by Sim
By Tank into Normandy by?

A couple of good, recent, compilation books are Montys Men and British Armour in Normandy, both by Buckley.

Armoured Guardsmen by Robert Boscawen
Any books by Ian Daglish, eg Over The Battlefield

If you can get a copy Taurus Pursuant, the diary of 11th Armoured Division.

Hill 112 by J J How
The Charge of the Bull by Jean Brisset

+1 Martin.

Tank! by Ken Tout (and Ken's other books).

Fearsome Battle by Robert Rogge
Stout Hearts by Ben Kite

And a little broader in scope To the victor the spoils by Sean Longden

As others have suggested mostly British titles (+1, Jeffers, for mentioning Tout's books), here are just a few of the many Canadian titles.

Of the soldiers' own accounts, with tactical detail:

- George Blackburn, a FOO, wrote a three-volume set, beginning with the Guns of Normandy.

- Charlie Martin's Battle Diary (Queen's Own) is excellent.

- The books of husband-and-wife team Denis and Shelagh Whitaker begin with ones on Normandy and Falaise and extend to the Rhineland, and are superb. Denis was with the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry.

Of historians' later works:

- Terry Copp has written extensively on NWE. My favourite is The Brigade, an account of Fifth Canadian Infantry Bde. Lots of detail.

- Mark Zuehlke has several volumes on the theatre, including one specifically on Juno. Very readable, laced with first-hand accounts.

- Bernd Horn, a retired contemporary officer, has several books also, focused mainly on Canadian paratroopers. 'Men of Steel' is on 1CanPara in Normandy.

Many, many others. Happy reading!

Why limit yourself to a book when you can go straight to the book's source?

link

Everything Fred said above is golden.

For overall battles and a concept of what went on and a bit of how they played out on a slightly good sized level try some of the following.

Anything by the Whittakers. The father was eventually a battalion commander and his oversight of the brigade and division level of what went on is incredibly good while he still gives a good impression of what the guy on the ground was thinking and doing.

All of the ZZuelhke books are also very good.
Juno, Holding Juno, Cinderlla Campaign, Terrible Victory, On to Victory.
Also quite a bit by him on the Italian campaign, husky, Ortona, Gothic Line et cetera,,,,.

There is also the classic favourite of "Caen: Anvil to Victory" by Alexander Mckee which gives a good overview concentrating on the British and Canadian side.

The Long Left Flank by Williams takes off right from the end of Mckees book in an overview of the drive through France and Belgium and into the battles to open up Antwerp and the Scheldt , the Reichwald forest and then the rhine crossing.

The Ken Tout books of "Tank" and "Tank Advance" are great.
A very good description of some of the fighting and a particularly good descritpion of the general feelings of the troops at the time.

I can't stop smiling. Every time I think of Ken Tout, I remember one part where his tank drives through a low slung apple orchard with open hatches and the apples start falling all over into the tank and sure enough a voice calls out from below , "to keep spinning the turret around so we can make scrumpy" or hard cider.

One of the foibles of being an armoured crewman that you have to be, to understand and chcukle over.

If that doesn't get through to tankers, then maybe the part about "donating a hair for King and country", in order to boresight the main gn.

Yea, I figured there would be a lot of goood ones that I am totally unaware of.

I'm especially interested in good ones for tank units for the British and Canadians, and which ones people think may be best to start with for the battles in Normandy, and France.

Thanks for the link to the Canadian website. I have seen and read some of the accounts there. They're also excellent for bomber units, and MTBs too.

I would also add Brian Reid, No Holding Back: Operation Totalize, Normandy, August 1944, (2005).

FWIW the following is the NW Europe part of the bibliography I used when I wrote the Micro-Armour: The Game book of Canadian scenarios put out by GHQ in 2003.

Bercuson, David, Battalion of Heroes: the Calgary Highlanders in World War II, 1994.

Bird, Will, North Shore (New Brunswick) Regiment, 1963.

Brown, Gordon, and Terry Copp, Look to Your Front: Regina Rifles: A Regiment at War 1944-45, 2001.

Cassidy, George, Warpath: The Story of the Algonquin Regiment, 1939-1945, 1948.

Copp, Terry, Fields of Fire: The Canadians In Normandy, 2003.

Copp, Terry and Robert Vogel, Maple Leaf Route: Caen, 1983.

__________, Maple Leaf Route: Scheldt, 1985.

__________, Maple Leaf Route: Victory, 1988.

English, John, The Canadian Army and the Normandy Campaign: A Study of Failure in High Command, 1991.

Falconer, David, Battery Flashes of W.W. II: A Thumb-Nail Sketch of Canadian Artillery Batteries During the 1939-1945 Conflict, 1985.

Johnston, Paul, "Tactical Air Power Controversies in Normandy, A Question of Doctrine", Canadian Military History, Spring 2000, pp. 59-71.

Graves, Donald, South Albertas: A Canadian Regiment at War, 1998.

Greenhous, Brereton, Semper Paratus, The History of the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry (Wentworth Regiment) 1862-1977, 1977.

Henry, Charles, Regimental History of the 18th Armoured Car Regiment, 1945.

Nicholson, Gerald, The Gunners of Canada: The History of the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery, Vol. II, 1972.

Queen-Hughes, Richard, Whatever Men Dare: History of the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders of Canada, 1935-1960, 1960.

Roy, Reginald, 1944: The Canadians In Normandy, 1984.

__________ and David Grubb, Ready for the Fray: The History of The Canadian Scottish Regiment (Princess Mary's) 1920-2002), 2002.

Snowie, Allan, Bloody Buron: The Battle of Buron, Normandy – 8 July 1944, 1984.

Stacey, Charles, Official History of the Canadian Army in the Second World War (Vol. III): The Victory Campaign: The Operations in North-West Europe 1944-1945, 1960.

Stanley, George, In the Face of Danger: The History of The Lake Superior Regiment, 1960.

Tascona, Bruce and Eric Wells, Little Black Devils: A History of the Royal Winnipeg Rifles, 1983.

Whitaker, Denis and Shelagh Whitaker, Tug of War, The Canadian Victory that Opened Antwerp, 1984.

__________, Rhineland, The Battle to End the War, 1989.

Wilson, Eric, Vanguard: The Fort Garry Horse in the Second World, 1945.

Wilson, David, "The Canadian Role in Operation ‘Charnwood', 8 July 1944: A Case Study in Tank/Infantry Doctrine and Practice", Canadian Military History, Summer 1999, pp. 7-21.

I'm especially interested in small unit actions and battles for the British and Canadians, fighting in Normandy through the end of the war. Detailed battle accounts of actions at the tip of the spear, would be greatly appreciated – tank troops and squadrons, combined forces actions (infantry and armor),and yes, even just infantry actions up through battalion, and even regimental unit size are of interest.

For those I don't think you can do better than 'Theirs The Strife' by John Russell. This details some of the battles fought by 2nd British Army in April 1945 on the Weser and Aller rivers and beyond.
Lots of photographs, good OOBs, huge amount of maps including some down to the smallest of actions. Wargame scenarios will almost write themselves.
Dunno if the German players would be too happy given the lopsided casualty ratios for many of the actions though.

You might try "Both Sides of the Beach," by Edmund Bradford. First-person accounts from both sides in Normandy, describing the same events.

Panzers in Normandy Then and Now (though dated and more about the German Armour side of the campaign) is a good pictorial account.

Brian Reid's No Holding Back is OK right up to the point where he tries to debunk Ekins incident on the 8th August. In that telling, he is both inaccurate, misleading, mistaken and short in evidence.

I agree that Ken Tout's books are excellent reads.

There is one book that I must mention. Though it isn't about a Tank-man, it is a stark telling about what an infantryman (Stanley Whitehouse) at the sharp-end had to go through and how it left him a battle-scarred, PTSD wreck. It's called FEAR IS THE FOE 'A Footslogger From Normandy to the Rhine'

Though not concerning the tankies and PBI, Powell's Men at Arnhem is a WW2 small unit classic. The author commanded a company during Market Garden and describes many actions at the platoon/section level

Caen: Anvil of Victory by Alexander McKee

Mailed Fist by John Foley