In the Third Reich, German water drops and shells fell, but not all of the Third Reich’s projectiles.FuhrerIt would prevent Ernie Lippard from losing his good habits. At the usual time, this Englishman stopped his tank and prepared … Strict tea in the tower. Minutes later, he entered the battle and ordered to fire on an enemy position. “We blew the place away!” books. In the end, he fell asleep inside that steel coffin, in the bitter cold, and woke up with the sun, ready for the next battle.
-
author
James Holland -
Editorial
Attic book -
year
2025 -
Pages
699 -
price
34.95 euros
Lippard’s life is just one of hundreds of tanker lives, without a hint of exaggeration, which comprise historian James Holland’s umpteenth article on World War II:Brothers in arms‘. This work is the result of more than 15 years’ investigation into the Sherwood Rangers Regiment, the English armored unit that fought in most of the battles during the conflict, and has now been translated into Spanish. And from the hand of Ático de los Libros, always loyal in Spain and who has become one of the most famous military historians in Europe thanks to the program “Nazi Megastructures”.
“Brothers in Arms” maintains the classic Holland style: it reveals an episode of war up close. He does so, as always, in the purest style of the great historian Anthony Beevor: threading through the experiences of the various members of the unit and making the reader travel from the particular to the general. Thus, through the testimonies of personalities such as Peter Sellery – who read Shakespeare’s poems when going into battle – or Mickey Gould – who made his comrades smile when he showed them the book “Winnie the Pooh” that he kept in his backpack – the expert shows what life was like inside an Allied tank.
“Brothers in Arms” is a painful read, but impossible to put down. Holland describes the conflict with agility, albeit with so much realism that it overwhelms the senses. He is able to spend pages and pages explaining the story of the family of a soldier who burned to death shortly after inside a Sherman tank. From his hand you can taste the smell of gasoline, gunpowder and sweat. However, he also suffers at times from the complexities of a military historian obsessed with troop movements. But even this cannot discredit the work that has nothing to envy in Ambrose’s classic “Blood Brothers.”