Customer Reviews

The Forgotten Battle: Overloon and the Maas Salient, 1944-45

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THE FORGOTTEN BATTLE: OVERLOON AND THE MAAS SAILIENT 1944-45, tells the extremely interesting story of the battles adjacent to Arnhem, Hell's Highway, Aachen, Huertgen, and the Ardennes. Even some of the best military history narratives available today would give you the false impression that after British XXX Corps cut a swath through to Nijmegen that the remaining Germans disappeared from the Netherlands. FORGOTTEN BATTLE completes this long overdue chapter of the battles along the Maas.

The initial setting is September 1944. The German front has collapsed and the Allies are simultaneously pushing the Germans back in France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands. In an attempt to level a death blow to Nazi Germany, British Field Marshal Montgomery pushes his plan forward to seize a series of Dutch bridges and wheel into Germany. A combined paratroop and armored assault slices into Holland, only to be stopped at the Neder Rijn. In the meantime, the Germans rush to reinforce their bridgehead along the Maas and cut the Hell's Highway corridor.

Meeting with only limited, and short-lived, success, the Germans pull back along the Maas and rebuild a cohesive front line blocking the Allied advance into Germany until 1945.

FORGOTTEN BATTLE is very enjoyable reading. Personal accounts are interwoven with meticulous research. The military operations along the Maas have never really had an official name. "Overloon and the Maas Salient" fits perfectly. Indeed, the present day military museum at Overloon, a superb facility, is often overlooked by military history tourists.

If you are a student of the period of time between the Arnhem operation and drive into the Reichswald, this book is for you. The only recommendation I have is that it is helpful to have a map of the Netherlands handy. There are map graphics scattered throughout the book, but sometimes the author sprinkles geographic names about so casually in the narrative that you might find yourself confused as to the location and direction of the action.

The Maas salient is truly a forgotten battle. With responsibility of the sector switching from British to US hands, it fell to the Dutch to write the book about the battle. As you might expect, they focus some on the hardships undergone by the Dutch civilians in the area. The book keeps a fairly tight lens on the battle, but it sometimes looses perspective. It's easy to get lost and wonder "why are they attacking again?" All in all, it's an interesting book, and recommended for the WW2 history buff who needs another book.

I purchased the book for my father-in-law who is Dutch and was living there at the time of the battle. To have a book written about the events that happened at that time was fantastic and gave valuable insight into what was happening in the surrounding areas.

Good account of a forgotten battle (due to Oper. Market and Battle of the Bulge), which I found that my Father and uncle participated in. Learned of the battle by accidently going to the Overloon Museum in Overloon Netherlands in 2006. One of the largest in Europe with one of the most impressive collection of military fighting vehicles from WW11 to present.