Saving the Breakout : The 30th Division's Heroic Stand at Mortain, August 7-12, 1944

Rating:
Summary: An Informative fast paced read
Review: As a current member of the 30th Mechanized Brigade I found this book to be an extremely interesting look into the roots and history of a forgotten Division. The author provided a great deal of insight into this critical battle through the personal experiences and recollections of the actual soldiers who fought against some of the best German troops at that time. This book was very informative and details a battle that very few people had heard of, which is a shame considering what these everyday soldiers accomplished under such exteme conditions. I would highly recommend.

Rating:
Summary: Two stories under one cover.
Review: Great book. I personally liked to read divisional histories, and this is in my top five. The writer takes you throught he divisions pre war history, European deployemnt, and combat history. The reader gets two stoies here, one is a history of a Army National Guard unit going to war, and the other is the Battle of Moritain, a pivital conflict in the conquest of France. I read it in a weekend, you will find it hard to put down as well.

Rating:
Summary: Two stories under one cover.
Review: Great book. I personally liked to read divisional histories, and this is in my top five. The writer takes you throught he divisions pre war history, European deployemnt, and combat history. The reader gets two stoies here, one is a history of a Army National Guard unit going to war, and the other is the Battle of Moritain, a pivital conflict in the conquest of France. I read it in a weekend, you will find it hard to put down as well.

Rating:
Summary: A Classic Account of a Forgotten Battle...
Review: What a superb book. Featherston, a journalist by trade, made himself into a first rate military historian with this, his first published work. He even outdoes the mighty Stephen Ambrose here. His focus is the 30th Infantry Division's lone stand at Mortain, as it bore the brunt of the German last great Panzer assault in France.
Much has been written about Mortain, how the Germans threw away their last bit of armored strength in this hopeless, Hitler ordered counterattack (Operation 'Luttich', the German word for Liege, a city in Belgium) and its subsequent repulse. Far too much credit has been given the Allied air forces in this battle and not enough to the infantrymen who faced the onslaught on the ground.
That fact was, that despite air support, the Old Hickory Division met the Germans head on, and this was some of the best German military units, the Waffen SS in addition to other Panzer divisions, and it beat them cold.
Featherston, interviews the veterans and they tell their story with pride, as I think they should. They took on the best Hitler had, and stopped the vaunted German Panzer force dead in its tracks.

This is a must have for any ETO fan.