In September 1944, 10,000 airborne soldiers were dropped 64 miles behind the German lines and were required to hold the vital bridges at Arnhem. What would happen would go down in legend. Iain Ballantyne crafts a breathless look at the men on the ground and the civilians who found the war entering every room in their homes.
The final few months of The Great War have rarely got the focus of those that proceeded them. The final offensive that finally silenced the guns and ended the slaughter was one in great contrast to the static game of inches of the years before. In The Last Battle, histoian Peter Hart superbly manages to show us the great scope of Foch’s great offensive while putting us in the mud with the men tasked with marching to the “green fields beyond”.