Normandy 1944

Old Duffer's Book Corner

Reviewed by Charles Vasey

Niklas Zetterling for JJFedorowicz Publishing

Fedorowicz often publishes books concerned with the glories of the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS, but this is a serious piece of history. Indeed Mr. Zetterling (a Swede) comes over as a rather serious fellow. However, he has demonstrated this seriousness by doing a very great deal of research in the German army in Normandy. His conclusions often offend against perceived wisdom, but he argues them well, always being aware of the reverse case. The book is very well produced and can be purchased off my old mate Jeff on Amazon.

The opening sections look at a range of useful things. The numbers of Germans in Normandy (Old Ambrose's belief that the Allies were outnumbered takes a bashing here). The effect of Allied air power is considered. Zetterling's view is that air power does not kill tanks and did not impose much of a delay on the movement of German units. What it did was interact with the lack of German fuel to mean that rail-movements (caused by the fuel shortage) could be more effectively interdicted by air power. The notes on German losses (you'll remember three men got out of the Falaise Pocket) are also well argued. Zetterling is a supporter of Dupuy's Combat Effectiveness Model and strongly argues that it shows the Germans had that 50% greater effectiveness. In the course of this, he runs up against the US Army Was The Best faction and gives them a hell of a beating. The British of course always reckoned the Germans were better, but that's because we love to appear to have bumbled through (and frequently do).

There then follows a section on every German unit in Normandy (plus a few that sent KGs from Brittany) with brief histories and organisational details. I can see Geoff Barnard enjoying this. Finally, there are a series of useful appendices including one by a Dupuy ninja bashing a bad tempered American whose father's division only came fifth.

Young Niklas is not many laughs but golly he knows his stuff. Just occasionally one wishes he could offer more of his own theories, rather than merely debunking those of others. But in each case he carefully notes the need for further research - his vices are those of his virtues.

Old Duffer's Book Corner Book Reviews

Back to Perfidious Albion #104 Table of Contents
Back to Perfidious Albion List of Issues
Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List
© Copyright 2004 by Charles and Teresa Vasey.
This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com