I wasn't sure just what to expect when I first saw this book. When I opened it and saw that it was a detailed account of the operations to take the strategically important crossroads town of Saint Lo, and that it was full of superlative photographs, I was immediately engrossed in reading it.

The author, Didier Lodieu, has gone through both American and German archives looking for photos of the various events that take place in this book. He has then combined them all into what has to be the best look at what it was like to fight in the hedgerow country of northern France in mid 1944.

This is, in effect, a day to day look at the operations of the attacking US forces and the German defenders. We move from one part of the country with one division to how their comrades in another division are doing. One thing that comes across to the reader is that this was probably some of the most difficult fighting in Europe. Hedgerows are pretty well impenetrable except when a tank goes crashing through them. Then there is always the good chance that there will be a German anti-tank emplacement waiting to destroy that same tank, leaving the attackers pretty well defenseless against withering German fire. This was a constant problem during the attempt to take St. Lo and advances were literally measured in yards.

All this comes through to the reader thanks to the large and superbly chosen photographs that are on every page. There are nearly 300 of them and most have been previously unpublished. They are very much a plus and give the reader an excellent look at how the war was fought. It also provides those sorts of details that armor modelers find so important and so will definitely appeal to the armor modeler as well as the historian.

It is a book that I found to be exceptional and I think that you will as well.

October  2007

Review book courtesy of  Casemate Publishing, where you can order your copy of this and many other superb books.

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