An End of War: Fatal Final Days to VE Day, 1945

Description

After D-Day in 1944 British troops in Normandy had been encouraged to believe that the war would be over by Christmas of that year. The German army in Normandy had indeed been destroyed but by Christmas the Allies were still fighting through Holland, whilst the Germans had reorganised and were ready to fight back. Ken Tout, using his own experiences and interviews with many veterans, explores how the last gasps of the German Army actually saw some of the fiercest and most fanatical fighting of the whole war. Including the major offensives of the Battle of the Bulge and Crossing the Rhine. This last year of war is filled with stories from the tragedy of whole groups of men being frozen to death in battle areas to the triumph of logistics, ingenuity and bravery. Fighting continued up to VE Day in May and some units were in action for days longer as confusion reigned about the enemy surrender. Even after the fighting had finished, the war was not over for these men who had to round up and guard German prisoners of war, watch over thousands of displaced people and play 'cat and mouse' along the new frontier established between the Soviet army and the Western allies. As our experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan remind us today, war does not necessarily end when a ceasefire is declared.