Falaise: The Flawed Victory - The Destruction of Panzergruppe West, August 1944

Bibliography

English language published and unpublished literature covering the many aspects of D-Day and the subsequent Normandy campaign is simply quite vast, but little of it deals explicitly with German experiences or indeed that of the panzer divisions. I have referred to, and quoted extensively from, the wide-range of works listed in full in the bibliography. Detailed endnotes, most notably for the quotes, have been deliberately omitted for the sake of brevity.

In preparing this volume I would particularly like to recommend Eric Lefevre’s superb Panzers in Normandy then and now, Richard Hargreaves’ The Germans in Normandy, and Niklas Zetterling’s Normandy 1944. Lefevre’s work is by far the best single volume dealing with the panzer regiments role and organisation in Normandy. Zetterling’s magisterial study, drawing on primary German sources, provides a comprehensive organisational surveyof almost every single German ground unit, including Heer, Waffen-SS and Luftwaffe, committed to the battle.

Also of note is Georges Bernage’s The Panzers and the Battle for Normandy, though this only covers up to late July 1944, missing out the final stages of the battle, and Jean-Paul Pallud’s Röckmarsh!, looking at the German retreat to the Seine. In contrast, Paul Carell’s Invasion – They’re Coming!, first published in Germany in 1960, documenting the battle from the German perspetive, has since been discredited as being inaccurate in places.

The postwar debriefs by Generals Eberbach, Fahrmbacher, von Gersdorff, Hausser, von Lüttwitz and von Schweppenburg, edited by David Isby , provide invaluable insight into the deployment of the panzertruppen and subsequent bitter squabbles amongst the German commanders about how the battle played out. They do, though, need to be treated with a degree of caution as many of the generals were seeking to exonerate their own performances, whilst blaming others for any perceived shortcomings. The original interviews are held at the US National Archives and the Military History Institute at the US Army War College. Basil Liddel Hart’s classic The Other Side of the Hill, in which he interviewed manyof the senior German generals, provides similar insight into the German High Command.

The German sitreps, or Weekly Situation Reports, also provide a snapshot of the slowly deteriorating situation in Normandy, especially in terms of the Allies mounting pressure on the German defences and the paucity of replacement troops and equipment. The Imperial War Museum, Public Archives of Canada, and the UK and US National Archives are the key depositories for most of the English language primary source material relating to this campaign.

Readers seeking a good overview will not do better than reading Major General David Belchem’s perceptive Victory in Normandy. He served as head of Montgomery’s planning staff and provides a first rate, concise yet comprehensive account. Likewise Max Hasting’s Overlord has much to recommend it.

The best accounts of the brutal battle for Caen are the works by Henry Maule and Alexander McKee, while the best works on Operation Cobra are James Carafano’s very detailed analysis, though this is mainly from the American point of view, and Steven Zaloga’s readily accessible volume. There are many works on Falaise. The best known is James Lucas and James Barker’s study and the most concise is Ken Ford’s, while William Breuer’s book verges toward the sensational. Recent detailed battlefield guides include the useful volumes by Stephen Hart and Paul Latawski. The most readily available accounts of 2nd SS Panzer Division’s troubled march north are those by Max Hastings and Phil Vickers, both titled Das Reich. Notably, many of the earlier published studies consulted are out of print.

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