The Struggle for Europe [Hardcover]

Chester Wilmot (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2005

Chester Wilmot’s The Struggle for Europe is the most highly regarded single-volume history of the Second World War in Europe. First published in 1952, the book has the advantage of the author's extensive interviews with participants from all sides of the conflict, when recollections of the war were still painfully fresh. The pattern of post-war Europe, he maintains, was determined during the fighting; he sees the shaping events through a study of wartime diplomacy and strategy and of the impact on wartime policies of the personalities of the statesmen and generals with whom the decisions lay. Throughout Wilmot hews to one guiding principle: To concern ourselves solely with the course of military events would be to tell only half the story and to see only half its significance. It is the political outcome that counts, and in this book the two are closely related at every stage.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Wilmot offers a journalistic view of the struggle to liberate Europe from the iron grip of the Third Reich. He follows the Allied efforts from the buildup to the Normandy invasion to the long, hard push through Europe, the assassination attempts against Hitler by his own commanders, and the final defeat. This solid single-volume history debuted in 1987.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Review

Wilmot effectively invented the modern method of writing contemporary military history. --John Keegan

Impossible to praise too highly. Becomes at once a classic of contemporary history. --Daily Telegraph, London

Product Details

• Hardcover: 766 pages
• Publisher: Konecky & Konecky (June 2005)
• ISBN-10: 1568525257
• ISBN-13: 978-1568525259
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 2.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #676,766 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A superb study of the war in Europe. Pride of place title., February 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Struggle for Europe (Wordsworth Military Library) (Paperback)

A very readable, comprehensive, yet compact study of the war in Europe. Wilmot covers all of the war in Europe, including Dunkirk, Dieppe, Battle of/Invasion of Britain,etc but is especially in his element post D-Day. He puts a lot of things in context- e.g. land force successes are related to the strategic ability of Germany to wage war following the strategic bombing of German factories etc., which in turn is put into the context of an air war, and other factors pertaining to output. Yes, German output of materiél was increasing at the end of the war...

For me, the best thing is that Chester WIlmot was, I believe, a New Zealander. He is therefore a lot more objective in his work than you find in many of the distorted and jignoistic books on the topic, where you expect John Wayne to arrive at any minute and nothing goes wrong. The Allies DID make mistakes. It wasnt all glorious, and he reflects this, whilst giving credit where it is due and putting reverses into proper context. For example, his analysis of Omaha beach and the inadequacies of US higher command that led to it is very moving; and he pulls no punches with e.g. Operation Market Garden either. Further, the political struggles within the allies are as well represented as the struggle against Nazi Germany itself: Finally, after reading Wilmot, you are left in no doubt that the fighting in Western Europe after D-Day was every bit as bitter and devastating as the fighting in the first world war, and with equally horrific casualties.

A must have book. I have been trying to track one down for years. I eventually found a well-used 1950s copy in a second hand book shop, and I would love another hard back version, but will settle for a paperback in the interim.

BUY THIS BOOK!!

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Only D-Day Book You'll Ever Need -or want- to Read, November 30, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Struggle for Europe. (Hardcover)

When Chester Wilmot, an Oxbridge graduate and a reporter for an English newspaper, was sifting through the war records at Nuremburg during the war trials, it donned on him that all the material the Allies needed to determine whether their D-Day strategy worked was in his hands. When he became a don at Oxford (I believe), he did just that. He poured over signal records captured from the Germans, historical data from the Allies, and produced a marvelous account of what the Allies did on D-Day and why it worked. The fact that Wilmot was on foot as a correspondent with the first British landing parties on D-Day only adds to the vision and understanding in, and the reader's appreciation of, this story. You'll end up wanting more. My wife and I visited Normandy on an excursion in the Summer of 1994, one week to the day after the 50th D-Day anniversary stuff ended. The crowds were gone but all the sites and history were still there. We stayed in a chateaux in a village called Audrieu and, in preparation for the trip, wanted to read a D-Day history. I'd read the Longest Day and seen the movie, but wanted something more and different. A colleague merely remarked, flatly, "it's the *best* book ever written on the subject." Wilmot didn't fail me. His ability to describe the macro troop movements and supply considerations, while at the same time describing in some cases every turn in the road, every hiding spot, and every skirmish, proved to me his ability as a great story-teller and historian. Even my wife, who was on the trip only because it was to France, and who originally had little interest in the region or D-Day, was smitten by the descriptions. She picked up the book while I was swimming in the Chateaux's pool early one morning, and it couldn't be pried loose until she was done. My wife was struck by the uncanny ability of Wilmot to describe a location or a battle or a situation from a hilltop, or vista point - along with a reference to a mile marker or other memorial so today's reader may find the same view, and witness what it is Wilmot is talking about. When one does this, as we did frequently, the book comes alive in the reader's hands more than any other first person history I have read. Wilmot's book is a masterpiece. Americans will read it and enjoy it because of its slightly skewed view for all of us - it's written from the British perspective most decidedly - and is unyielding in its frank comparisons of fresh but unskilled American troops, compared with their experienced, weary British colleagues. The book will stand out as an icon of its genre to anyone who reads it - and to those who accompany the tome to Normandy, it will make for a lifelong memory. Its ability to enhance a journey to Normandy cannot be overstated. Copyright TAStone 1997.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars brilliant, May 10, 2000

By 

DH - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Struggle for Europe. (Hardcover)

I attended the New Zealand Armed Forces Staff Course in 1997 and had to read numerous books on military history. None of them were as engrossing and well written as Chestor Wilmonts Struggle for Europe. This has been on my bookshelf for many years and I have read it twice. A terrific expose of the second world war in Europe. Chester draws you into the war as if you were there on D Day, and turns what could have been a very boring strategic overview of the war into an indepth study which keeps you wanting to read more.