Patton's Peers: The Forgotten Allied Field Army Commanders of the Western Front, 1944-45 Book

•History of the campaign for northwest Europe, including the race across France, the liberation of the channel ports, the battles of the Huertgen Forest and the Bulge, crossing the Rhine, the climactic battle for Germany, and more•Corrects the historical misperception that Patton contributed more to victory than other generals•Assesses commanders' individual performances•Impressively researched in both primary and secondary sources•New interpretations and an entertaining narrative will appeal to both general readers and scholars: Through the force of his personality and the headline-grabbing advance of his U.S. Third Army, Gen. George S. Patton has eclipsed the other six men who, like him, led field armies in the great Allied campaign to liberate northwest Europe in 1944-45. Destined to rank among the classics of World War II history like Eisenhower's Lieutenants by Russell Weigley, Patton's Peers presents a masterful reassessment of the eleven-month struggle from D-Day to Germany's surrender, shedding long-overdue light on the contributions of the forgotten Allied field army commanders. A field army was the formation between the larger army groups and smaller corps, responsible for the critically important operational level of war between strategy and tactics. Seven such armies waged the Allied offensive in France and Germany: the First Canadian Army under Harry Crerar, the Second British Army under Miles Dempsey, the U.S. First Army under Courtney Hodges, the U.S. Ninth Army under William Simpson, the U.S. Seventh Army under Alexander Patch, the First French Army under Jean de Lattre de Tessigny, and Patton's Third Army. A seasoned militaryhistorian, John A. English unearths the vital contributions of the six army commanders who fought in Patton's shadow and, through them, vividly and authoritatively retells the epic story of the liberation of Europe.