The Guns at Last Light

 

There have been a huge number of books written about World War II and I’ve read quite a few of them. 

One of the very best has been Rick Atkinson’s acclaimed Liberation Trilogy about the Allied triumph in Europe during World War II. I just finishing the concluding volume in the Trilogy titled The Guns at Last Light. In the first two volumes Rick Atkinson recounted how the American-led coalition fought through North Africa and Italy to the threshold of victory. Now, in The Guns at Last Light, he tells the most dramatic story of all—the titanic battle for Western Europe.

 D-Day marked the commencement of the final campaign of the European war, and Atkinson’s wonderful account of that bold gamble sets the pace for the  narrative that follows. The brutal fight in Normandy, the liberation of Paris, the disaster that was Operation Market Garden, the horrific Battle of the Bulge, and finally the thrust to the heart of the Third Reich—all these historic events and more come alive with a wealth of new material and a mesmerizing cast of characters. Atkinson tells the tale from the perspective of participants at every level, from presidents and generals to war-weary lieutenants and terrified teenage riflemen. When Germany at last surrenders, we understand anew both the devastating cost of this global conflagration and the enormous effort required to win the Allied victory.

What makes Atkinson special, as a writer of history, is the way  he manages to knit together the seemingly minute and personalized details, scenes and comments of many   participants in the events of the war ,  into a broad tapestry that is both interesting and understandable. It is  narrative prose of incredible richness which at times can almost take your breath away.