Kershaw notes that there exist relatively few later personal accounts by German soldiers involved. The engaging strength of the book lies in the on-the-spot responses, both official reports on conditions and developments on the ground and, even more interesting, letters and observations by the landser, German tommies, covering 30 miles a day in their acclaimed blitzkrieg. The maps help the reader but at times one feels the need for the paraphernalia of miniature wargaming to capture the sense of confusion on both sides of the conflict, although particularly on the part of the Nazis. Kershaw certainly meticulously covers the intricacies of the military planning, procedure and outcome of Hitler and his generals’ Wehrmacht. If, as we are told, history is written by the victors, Robert Kershaw’s subtitle to his new study offering “The German view of Dunkirk,” the reader might hope for some enlightening surprises. It is perhaps too much to expect any new information from yet another account of “the miracle” of Dunkirk. THE “great escape” of around 300,000 British troops, nearly half of the nation’s army, from the lightening German stranglehold imposed in the opening weeks of WWII has been intensively researched by historians, novelists and film-makers, even war games addicts.
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