Customer Reviews

Defenders of Fortress Europe: The Untold Story of the German Officers during the Allied Invasion

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Actually I rated this 3+ stars. The author does yeoman work in providing biographies of the German commanders in Normandy, the 15th Army and elsewhere in the defense of France, but often the stories are only peripheral to what the reader really wants to know about the German commanders. The dry recounting of an officer's service record is only a slight indicator of his talent and command style. Consider Eisenhower's biography until being tapped by Marshall to head Torch. He had been strictly a staff officer, described by MacArthur as "the best clerk I ever had," and someone who rose from lieutenant colonel in March of 1941 to Commander of all American Forces in the European Theater in June 1942 without ever having led troops in combat. One could forgive the Germans from laughing and considering him ill-suited for the job.

With the biographies being limited, the author attempts to tie them in to the action on the ground as the officers became involved. This technique doesn't always work. For example, General Marcks, commonly considered to be the best corps commander the Germans had in France at the tile of Overlord, is given bit player consideration, and it is difficult to follow what happened to his corps following his death. The result is a rather loose narrative, punctuated with various biographies, and a book that may be useful for reference (using the index extensively), but not something a reader pours through from cover to cover. It is probably best used with other works on the Germans in Normandy to fill in some personnel gaps on the German side.

In short, this is a mildly useful work, one that I am happy to have on my shelf, but not an important work.

This book is similar in nature to the author's "The Men of Barbarossa". In "Barbarossa" the author uses the operation as a guideline to choose the associated men to discuss. The actual events of the campaign, in my judgment, is secondary to the profile development. Its the same way with this book. The German officers associated with the defense of Western Europe are discussed and their military biographies wil take priority over the battle events in 1944. These profiles will cover their full careers, not just the time spent in France and Belgium in 1943-44. Both books, "Barbarossa" and "Defenders", are really more acclimated as reference books, only to be used when looking up a particular General or other key person. Some of these men are well known and need little introduction but many of them are less known but still have interesting stories.

The profiles are brief but effective. Most men receive at least a page; a few will receive a half page. Model, Rommel receive three or more pages.
If your main interest is in learning about German officers then this book deserves your consideration. On the other hand, if your main interest concerns the operational events in France and Belgium, this book will probably disappoint. Specific battle history of Operation Overlord is thin. The author has also written other books on Normandy; the volume, "Retreat to the Reich" is a good example. This book presents a concise battle history of the Germans being pushed back to the Rhine. The combination of both these books would make a good overall summary of battle history and officer biographical for the new or intermediate student.

The "Defenders" have 18 maps and 23 photos of some of the key people covered. An Appendix, Notes section, Bibliography and the all important Index close out the book.
Over the years, the author has compiled an impressive amount of information on WWII. I've read eleven of his books and you can tell that these books are based on this huge database of knowledge and though there is some duplication in his books and you do have to work to retrieve that key information, his collective works will be worth the effort for many of us.