Praise for Brothers in Arms:
“Holland objects to the way the last year of the war has too often been presented as a seamless narrative of success, an inexorable advance from Normandy to Berlin. He concentrates instead on the forgotten little battles that crowded every day . . . The power of Holland’s book lies in the painful intimacy he creates. The reader gets to know these men as if they exist in the present . . . Impossible to put down. Seldom is war so vividly described . . . Caught up in the drama of battle, we sometimes forget the good men who died. Holland, to his credit, forces us to remember.”—Gerard DeGroot, Times (UK)
“Mr. Holland sympathetically captures the chaos swirling inside the 30-ton beasts . . . [He] ably sets up his main characters: men he had the good fortune to interview, or those who left detailed diaries, letters and reminiscences behind . . . Brothers in Arms tells a superb story of World War II’s destruction with a breadth that small-unit narratives cannot match.”—Jonathan W. Jordan, Wall Street Journal
“James Holland’s greatest strength as a military historian is that he brings humanity to his work—a rare trait in a field of research that can sometimes feel dominated by those obsessed with numbers . . . He paints a remarkably vivid picture of what his subjects endured and achieved in the closing stages of the conflict. Like a fly on the white-painted interior wall of the Sherman tank, we observe the hot, fume-filled air that makes the crew choke as the extractor fan struggles to clear the smoke . . . A powerful and moving reminder that there is tragedy in statistics.”—Katja Hoyer, Spectator
“Holland brings this cramped universe vividly to life in his account of the long march of a single regiment, the Sherwood Rangers . . . Their story can be seen as a reflection of the British war as a whole and Holland tells it very well, using his trademark technique of immersive detail and focus on a cast of well-defined characters.”—Patrick Bishop, Telegraph
“James Holland accomplishes a major victory, a rarity, in bringing back to life unnerving tank battles . . . With his remarkable keen insights that provide riveting descriptions, the author transports the reader, day by day, hour by hour, to Victory in Europe (V-E Day). No narrative such as Holland’s, with such intimate details and carefully crafted fighting depictions, has ever been published before. Simply put, this book is of a great magnitude in the War Literature of the 20th Century.”—ARGunners
“The heroic exploits of the British Army’s Sherwood Rangers tank unit over the last 11 months of WWII are richly documented in this sweeping chronicle from historian Holland . . . Vivid eyewitness accounts, colorful character sketches, and lucid tactical discussions make this a must-read for military history buffs.”—Publishers Weekly
“A fine account of the brutal daily experiences of a celebrated British tank regiment . . . This book is the result of massive research in British and American archives, plus a few interviews with survivors, and the author includes a generous selection of maps and photos . . . One of the better recent blow-by-blow chronicles of a World War II unit.”—Kirkus Reviews
Praise for James Holland:
"Holland's great skill lies in bringing these warriors back to life with vivid prose. He's an enormously prolific historian of the war, but each book he produces is constructed with great care and emotional commitment . . . Holland is obsessed with war, but fortunately does not seem to love it. He recognizes its beauty, but also its vileness."—Gerard DeGroot, Times (UK) on Sicily '43
"Highly detailed . . . The interplay of personal stories with the broader strategic picture makes this book especially illuminating . . . A fascinating must-read for World War II aficionados."—Kirkus Reviews (starred review) on Big Week
"James Holland's The War in the West is set fair to become one of the truly great multivolume histories of the Second World War."—Andrew Roberts, New York Times-bestselling author of The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War and Napoleon: A Life
"A fascinating story of how the fortunes of war changed in obvious—and particularly not so obvious—ways."—Col. Eric M. Walters, Military Review on The Allies Strike Back
"Holland puts the case for Allied technological and military skills as a vital factor in turning the war's tide . . . Ranks as a towering work of historical research and writing."—BBC History Magazine on The Allies Strike Back
"This is narrative history as intimate, intricate tapestry . . . Mr. Holland's success is built in part on an engaging writing style and in part on a genuinely fresh approach to events that have been so often—and apparently definitively—recounted . . . Exceptional . . . Epic."—Wall Street Journal on The Rise of Germany
"Impeccably researched and superbly written . . . Holland's fascinating saga offers a mixture of captivating new research and well-considered revisionism."—Guardian on The Rise of Germany
09/20/2021
The heroic exploits of the British Army’s Sherwood Rangers tank unit over the last 11 months of WWII are richly documented in this sweeping chronicle from historian Holland (Sicily ’43). After helping to secure victory in North Africa, the regiment, which up until 1941 had fought on horses, re-assembled and trained in England before taking part in the D-Day landings at Normandy. Weeks of “inch-by-inch, yard-by-yard” fighting ensued, as regimental officers struggled to coordinate with infantry, artillery, and air support, while crews quickly learned how to get out of a burning tank before being incinerated. Holland describes the unit’s chaplain bringing bodies back from the front lines for burial, and commanding officer Stanley Christopherson’s agony over the condolence letters he wrote to families. There are also lighter moments, such as when a trio of officers swilled champagne at the Hotel Ritz in recently liberated Paris. By the time the Rangers crossed the German border in November 1944, the regiment had suffered more than 300 casualties. In May 1945, they were battling the last diehard Nazis near Bremen when word came down that Germany had finally surrendered. Vivid eyewitness accounts, colorful character sketches, and lucid tactical discussions make this a must-read for military history buffs. Agent: Patrick Walsh, PEW Literary. (Nov.)
★ 11/01/2021
Military historian Holland (Sicily '43) turns his keen storytelling skill to the Sherwood Rangers, a British tank unit that had, by the end of the Second World War, amassed more battlefield honors than any other unit in British army history. Originally formed as a mounted cavalry unit, the Rangers formed the tip of the Allied spearhead on D-Day and paved the way for the success of the invasion, Holland argues. The Rangers fought with tenacity throughout the war while suffering a tremendous number of casualties, earning the distinction of being the first British unit to set foot on German soil. While many histories portray the Allied victory as inevitable, Holland focuses on the battles and personalities of the Rangers to prove this view to be misleading; the Rangers faced some of their hardest fighting tank-to-tank fighting and gut-wrenching losses after the breakout from Normandy, he argues. This excellent history of the Rangers is based on numerous interviews, letters, and diaries of many of the unit's members. Maps and photos bring more depth to the story. VERDICT An excellent addition to other World War II unit histories and a must-read for anybody interested in military history and the Second World War.—Chad E. Statler, Westlake Porter P.L., Westlake, OH
2021-08-28
A fine account of the brutal daily experiences of a celebrated British tank regiment.
World War II historiography received a shot in the arm with Stephen Ambrose’s 1992 book, Band of Brothers, which eschewed the traditional campaigns-and-commanders format to describe a single unit’s experience. In his latest, veteran military historian Holland, author of more than 10 books about WWII, tries his hand successfully with the Sherwood Rangers. A British cavalry regiment throughout World War I, in 1942, the Rangers converted to armor in time to fight at El Alamein and then across North Africa. Withdrawn to Britain, they trained throughout early 1944 and then came ashore on Gold Beach on D-Day. This book is the result of massive research in British and American archives, plus a few interviews with survivors, and the author includes a generous selection of maps and photos. The text is best suited for military buffs, as Holland delivers an intense, 400-page description of the regiment’s nearly yearlong battle across France, Belgium, and Germany. An expert military historian, the author steps back regularly from battlefield fireworks to explain tactics and technical details. The Rangers mostly drove American Sherman tanks, denigrated from the beginning for having smaller guns and less armor than German tanks, but Holland records few complaints. They were reliable, easy to operate, and quick to repair compared to German behemoths, and they could fire a shell every three seconds. The regiment’s Shermans destroyed many Tigers and Panthers, and shells that bounced off distracted their operators. Readers who assume that it was safer to be inside a tank will quickly realize their error thanks to Holland’s precise accounts. Casualties were high, and deaths often gruesome from burns or suffocation. Many popular historians write that German resistance collapsed once the Allies crossed the Rhine, but this wasn’t the experience of the Rangers, who fought and died until a few days before the end.
One of the better recent blow-by-blow chronicles of a World War II unit.
