This book looks at D-Day, Operation Cobra and the Third Army's advance toward the Rhine and into Germany. The author's grandfather, Carl Murray, served in Battery D, 411th Antiaircraft Artillery, which was landed at the American beaches after D-Day and later moved forward with Third Army. This unit was equipped with 90mm guns, but Carl Murray was in the motor section and would not have had much to do with the artillery until it was time to move.
Point in fact, there isn't much in this book about Murray. The book is written as a short history of Third Army which revolves around a handful of photographs taken by the grandfather during the war and another handful of anecdotes of the man. It more often mentions Patton and takes anecdotes of other authors to build up the content. After reading this book I don't know any more than I did before I picked it up regarding how a 90mm battery operated (did they answer to corps? did they have advance scouts for positions?) or what challenges a motor sergeant endured during the fight. Because Murray didn't write a journal or have letters that survived the author guesses quite a bit or relies on other books to tell the reader what it was like in France in the last half of 1944. The things I read about regarding Normandy, Paris, Metz and Dachau I already knew about from reading Time-Life's WWII series. What I learned about Murray could have been condensed into a few pages.
Good writing style, though.
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