Customer Reviews

Retreat to the Reich: The German Defeat in France, 1944

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Samuel W. Mitcham's "Retreat to the Reich: The German Defeat in France, 1944" is solid look, mostly from the German perspective, at the action in Northwest Europe from the June 6 (1944) Allied invasion of Festung Europa to the failed Ardennes counteroffensive of mid-to-late December '44. While the war in Europe didn't end for another 5 months, the events of the six months Mitcham covers here are generally considered the period on the Western front that contributed most significantly to the ultimate Anglo-American-Soviet defeat of Germany (with the Soviet actions on the Eastern playing the overall dominant role). In focusing on this period of action from the German side of the equation, Mitcham - a noted historian who has contributed much to our current knowledge of the German army of WWII - has helped to fill in portions of the larger puzzle that are generally lacking on other accounts and analyses of the same period and geographical realm. Not surprisingly, given Mitcham's expertise, "Retreat to the Reich" contains much by way of German Order of Battle information (Mitcham has written one of the definitive books on the Werhmacht OB; "Hitler's Legions", 1985, ISBN-10: 0812829921) as the action is described. Sometimes this approach becomes a bit tedious to read, but one certainly cannot claim Mitcham fails as a quality historian. This is not to say that Mitcham has generated a prose that is difficult or uninteresting, rather it is deep in historical content in a way that not all readers may enjoy. Certainly those more serious about their historical readings/studies will thoroughly enjoy "Retreat to the Reich", while it may be more hit-or-miss as enjoyment for the casual reader of Second World War history. Three stars for writing style, 4.5 stars for historical prowess; 4 stars overall.

This new book from Samuel W. Mitcham, Jr., author of numerous books on the German armed forces during World War Two, is another great addition to literature on that subject. In this book the author covers the German defeat in France after the Allied invasion in June 1944. In just over 270 pages Mitcham offers the reader an interesting account of the German measures to defeat the Normandy invasion, the story is well told and the narrative flowed along quite smoothly.

The book is no where as detailed as the classic account by Carlo D'este, `Decision in Normandy' published in 1983. However it does offer a very good overview of the invasion at Normandy and the fighting in the bocage country along with the subsequent invasion of Southern France. The story continues with the Allied drive to the Rhine and the failed airborne operation `Market Garden'. One of the best points about this book is that it offers a biography of each of the major commanders and a mini history of each major fighting unit. The author presents this information in a way that it does not interrupt the story, it enhances it.

There are a number of first hand accounts by participants on both sides of the fighting and the author makes a number of interesting observations about the German and Allied forces and their commanders. The photographs supplied were OK but I think could have been better presented and I am a bit suspicious about some of the captions. The main disappointment with this book is the standard of the maps. They could have been a lot better and more detailed. This seems to be a common problem with a number of books on the market at the moment and I only hope that some publishers take note.

Overall I found this book to be an interesting and enjoyable read and I think that most people who have an interest in this subject should enjoy it. I would make the point however that this is more of a general overview of this campaign and not a detailed combat history. Regardless of that I hope the author intends to follow on with a book covering the Ardennes Offensive and the final drive into Germany.

I believe that Mr Mitcham is today the leading expert on the German Army and its officer corps during World War II and this book is a real gem for everyone who's looking for a nice account of the German defeat in France in 1944. It starts with the D-Day invasion and goes on with the bocage battles, the "Cobra" breakout, the Mortain - Falaise terrible battle, the Allies' advance to the Seine and Paris and the reach of the German frontier. Instead of what happens often in other military history books, Mitcham's works are a joy to read, because they are very well written, contain a wealth of rare material and information (especially the numerous biographical sketches of German officers), and most important, they do not have mistakes commonly found elsewhere, like the designation of units and formations, the ranks of German officers, the spelling of their names etc. I wish Mr Mitcham will offer us many more titles in the future, using always his talent for smooth writing, detail and professional research. His books remain always in my library as valuable and credible sources of reference.

This book covers the Normandy landing and subsequent breakout and race toward the Rhine but the story is covered from a German perspective. It is the prequel to the author's "The German Defeat in the East". If you have read one you'll be familiar with the other for the styles are similar. Its an overview that starts at Normandy and ends with the completion of Operation Market-Garden. Thats another thing the books have in common; they end at odd times. Perhaps the author is trying to garner a couple more books from the publisher but whatever the reason, I find it a little discouraging having two incomplete campaigns.
Mr Mitcham begins his story at the close of WWI with the desperate living conditions Germans were forced to endure at the hands of the Allies and how the Nazis were able to take power and pull the economy back to health and give respect back to its people.

The story then jumps to late 1943 with Rommel and Rundstedt taking over the defense of the Atlantic Wall and the ensuing struggle of which units would be under whose command and which strategy would be used for the inevitable invasion. With Rommel being the junior officier, he had to follow the demands of Rundstedt and Hitler.

Once the main story begins with the landings at Normandy the pace remains quick and there is not much depth to it but the key events are covered. The landings, Caen, Operation Goodwood, St Lo, Operation Cobra, Mortain Counteroffensive, Rennes and the rest of Brittany, Falaise, the Seine crossing, Operation Market-Garden and the approach to the Germany border. Operation Cobra probably has the best coverage in the book.
I like the book for several reasons. First, even though its an overview, the author mentions all the German units involved in the tactical engagements and provides an Order of Battle with each engagement. Secondly the author includes the lower ranking generals that are usually absent in other books and you learn something about these commanders that are usually near the front lines.

Though there are discussions of German commanders, there really isn't much of anecdotal experience with the ground troops.
There are 12 black and white maps which are pretty basic but they help and 26 photos. There is an Appendix of useful tables and an extensive Bibliography for further reading. A good Index will help you find any individual, division or army unit that has your interest.
If your looking for a good tactical overview of the fighting in France in the last half of 1944 from a German perspective, give this serious consideration. If you're looking for an excellent overview with an Allied perspective that runs through May 1945, then let me suggest "D-Day to Berlin" by Allan Levine. The best course of action would be to have both.

After the first pages, it seemed that this would be a good historical account with a wealth of information on the defeat of the Wehrmacht in France after June 6 1944. But, as I kept reading, I found too many inaccuracies (see examples below) for my taste, and I distrust information about facts that I do not know when I find errors about facts that I do know. That, together with a poor writing style, earns a bad mark for this book.

I found the writing style rather awkward with convoluted sentences such as "...blasted the area around the area from whence..." on p123, or "...little doubt but what Colditz could have..." on p187. Some words are incorrect in their context such as "involved" instead of "evolved" on p165; "residual" instead of "residential" on p242; "work did began" on p166.

There are many mistakes in the names of persons and places and since they occur more than once, it's more than an occasional typo.
Biographical errors include: General von Sueplnagel (p52, 53) [instead of General von Stuelpnagel]; General Albert Jodl (p124) [instead of General Alfred Jodl]; General de Lattre...and...General de Tassigny (p210) [these two generals are one and the same person: general deLattre de Tassigny, not two separate commanders].
Geographical errors include: "Palace de la Concorde" instead of the correct "Place de la Concorde" (p187); "Melum" instead of "Melun" (p194); "Velse (river)" instead of "Vesle (river)" (p204); "Marseilles" instead of "Marseille" (p211); "Le Harve" instead of "Le Havre" (p220,224). As well as an egregious one: "...forces had reached Antibes, 140 miles from the Mediterranean." (p210) but Antibes is on the French Mediterranean coast. The correct spellings and locations can be found in the French Atlas 2000 Atlas 2000: La France et le monde (French Edition) and in the US Army Atlas of the European Theater U.S. Army Atlas of the European Theater in World War II.

There are some additional historical inaccuracies which do not directly impact the subject of the book. Still one can remark that "the Reichswehr period (1919-1933)", on p161, is incorrect: the existence of the Wehrmacht was officially announced on 15 October 1935, a few months after the reintroduction of conscription on March 16 1935. Also, on p23: the V1, or flying bomb, was not powered by a rocket (the V2 was) but by a rudimentary jet engine. On p2, it's not factually correct to state that Hitler was "the legally elected chancellor of Germany" since he was legally appointed by the president Hindenburg (Hitler only ran once for elected office, that of the presidency, which he lost to Hindenburg). Finally p214: "He had fought in the Demyansk pocket for more than a year" is incorrect: that pocket, which was formed 7 January 1942, was relieved in May 1942, although, due to the shifting winds of war, fighting in that region lasted until March 1943.

Very well written book loaded with facts and biographies of the major participants in the appendices. Easy to read and follow and very informative.

Samuel W. Mitcham is a Professor of Geography at the University of Louisiana in Monroe. He is also the author of numerous works of military history, most recently Rommels Greatest Victory, The Desert Fox and the Fall of Tobruk, Spring 1942, (Presidio Press, 1998). Just about everything he has written, in fact, has related in some way to the German Army of the Second World War. In this, his twentieth book to run through the same vein, he demonstrates that while he may not have acquired breadth in his understanding of the military history of the period, he certainly has the depth in one topic required to convey vast amounts of information to the reader. This new book is a solid Operational History from the German point of view.
In military history there are several sub-genres. There is, of course, the traditional bugles and trumpets sort of patriotic first-person military history made popular by several well-known military historians in the past few years. There is also a more sophisticated (but not always useful) sub-field one might call social-military history. This is a type of history that seeks answers to broader questions or applies emergent theories of human behavior to questions of military history in search for answers. Then there is one of the older types of military history, Operational History. This is the straight-forward account, without interpretation, of events in a battle or campaign in a sequential narrative. Best written without emotion, this type of history forms the foundation for all others. It is the record of facts, not the interpretation of them. In Retreat to the Reich Mitcham gives us a decent though not definitive, single source account of the German side of the Battle of France.
On the down side, one suspects after a while that perhaps Mitcham has become too enamored of his most written about subject. His portrayals of the officers in the German Wehrmacht are generally favorable, and in some cases are openly admiring. After just a few dozen pages one begins to wonder, given what we know of the actions of the German Army and nation in the Second World War, if these are the same officers that we were fighting in World War Two. Mitcham generally accomplishes this historical sleight-of-hand by not delving too deeply into the personal histories of these officers and generally relying upon their own post-war memoirs for accounts of their actions and behaviors. Thus he avoids mentioning their participation in any massacres or pre-war applications of force against Jews or other minorities. One notes especially that he carefully avoids noting the actions of these German officers or their units on the Eastern Front. In fact, the only distasteful actions in the entire book are the summary executions of SS troops at the hand of some American MPs and another more general suggestion that this was a common practice that summer and fall of 1944. Not once does a German unit or officer misbehave or maltreat prisoners or civilians in their precipitous retreat across France. Apparently only Americans (and Canadians) did that sort of thing. The was, I will admit, news to me.
What Mitcham does devote a lot of verbiage towards is a fairly complete account of the underground anti-Hitler conspiracies that permeated the Wehrmacht during the war. While the fact remains that these conspirators never actually made an attempt on Hitlers life until the summer of 1944, the fact that there was at least some movement cannot be ignored. I will readily concede that the few dozen pages Mitcham devotes to this aspect of German Army history are some of the best and most interesting in the book. In the end, however, I am reminded that there were hundreds of thousands of officers in the armed forces of Nazi Germany, and only a few dozen actually tried to do anything about Hitler. Thats a fact that you tend to forget when reading this book. However, there were some interesting parts. Among the most interesting facts Mitcham brings out is the history of one Lieutenant Colonel (later Major General) Henning von Treschow. Treschow, a career officer, had been coordinating various groups towards an attempt on Hitlers life as early as 1942. As the Chief of Staff of Army Group Center (on the Eastern Front) he had maneuvered to collect several like-minded officers together in that Headquarters so that it became the center of resistance to Hitlers régime. One by-product of this cabal was the creation of a military unit that could, should the situation arise, be used in direct combat against Nazi forces. That unit was a cavalry regiment commanded by the younger brother of one of Treschows co-conspirators, Captain Georg von Boeselager. The Boeselager Cavalry Unit became the Cavalry Regiment Center and was essentially the fire-brigade for Army Group Center. With more than 600 Russian Cossacks in the ranks, and a specially selected cadre, it was also potentially the foundation for a coup. Such was not to be, alas, as the one attempt on Hitlers life in 1943 was an abysmal failure. As an operational level history, the history of a campaign, this book does a decent job explaining how the German Army fell apart in the Summer of 44. One learns from Mitchams broad strokes where each unit was, what their missions were, and how their commanders interacted. It would be interesting to match this book against Stephen Ambroses Citizen Soldiers. This approach would allow the readers to cover the same period and many of the same smaller unit actions, from both sides.

I enjoyed the read. I would recommend the Micheal Whitman books as a nice complement to this book.