Yanks and Limeys: Alliance Warfare in the Second World War
In spite of the title, this book only covers land warfare in the European theatre and says nothing about the cooperation of navies and air forces, and nothing about operations in the Pacific. Admittedly, this is a big enough subject in itself. The grand partnership between the USA and the British Empire in World War II was the largest, closest, and most successful military alliance of all time, and led directly to the post-war “special relationship” between the two countries. As the author points out, modern historians have concentrated on the well-known disagreements between the larger than life, ego-driven characters leading the alliance, to the detriment of the mutual respect and admiration that grew up between the soldiers on the ground. Unfortunately, having said that, the author then proceeds to detail the very disagreements that so dominate modern-day thinking!
To be fair, a book like this is always going to concentrate on the negatives rather than the positives, as there is simply more to the negatives than the positives. Still, the thoroughness of the research does lead to a greater appreciation of the people involved and their very real achievements.
