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Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.541273
EAN num: 9780760331460
ISBN number: 0760331464
Label: Zenith Press
Manufacturer: Zenith Press
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 416
Printing Date: September 15, 2007
Publishing house: Zenith Press
Sale Popularity Level: 435468
Studio: Zenith Press
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
This is the story of the Allied forces--the U.S. 6th Army Group and French 1st Army--that landed in southern France on August 15th, 1944. The book follows the action from the French beaches to the Vosges Mountains, where the very first Allied penetration along the entire Western front reached the Rhine River. First to the Rhine covers the vicious fighting during the German Nordwind counteroffensive in January 1945 and the French-American offensive to clear the Colmar Pocket. It then pursues the forces of the Third Reich across the Rhine to their ultimate destruction.
Unlike the forces landing in Normandy, these American divisions were hard-bitten veterans of the war in Italy, and, in the case of the 3d Infantry Division, North Africa. The French units included many veterans of the Italian campaign and comprised Frenchmen and Africans in almost equal numbers. As the campaign went on, the French ranks were swelled by tens of thousands of Free French Forces of the Interior, the famous maquis.
The German forces arrayed against the Allies included the famed 11th Panzer Division, an Eastern front veteran known as the 'Ghost Division,' which would hit the Allied advance time and again only to slip away before it could be pinned and destroyed. This is the harrowing story First to the Rhine tells, from the strategic plane-down through the corps, division, and regimental levels to the personal experience of the men in combat, including the likes of Audie Murphy, Americas most decorated infantryman of the war.
The book features little-known battles, including one at Montelimar, when an ad hoc American armored command and the 36th Infantry Division came within a hairs breadth and several days of hard fighting of cutting off the entire German 19th Army. This is the very first popular work in English to explore the French role in the fighting and the relationship between the U.S. Army and the French forces fighting under American command.
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Rated by buyers 
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A workmanlike account of the often overshadowed Allied effort in Southern France, Operation Nordwind and Colmar Pocket. The basic approach of the authors is to describe the chronological movement of the allied divisions. As such, it's really just a skeletal history. It still needs better authors to flesh out the critical moments of the campaign, and give weight to the crucial events. As it is, this book treats every day as just about equal, no event much more important than the other. The authors are most successful concerning the diplomatic and strategic balance between French and US armies. They make clear how delicate a balancing act was necessary to keep those two armies coordinated and working in a unified fashion. Authors also do a good job accounting for which German units were in the battles, something that not every author bothers with. Bibliography and footnotes are exhaustive (in a good way) but show clearly that this book is really just a digest of a multiplicity of unit histories and army publications. Maps are useless. I needed to print out google maps to follow along.
Rated by buyers 
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I agree with J. Groen - the lack of maps that referenced the places referred to in this book made it very difficult to follow the battles.
Also it was a very dry book and not one that I'll bother reading again.
Rated by buyers 
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This is an excellent book about the 6th Army Group and its American and French armies that fought across southern France and into Germany. It discusses the fighting from the operational level, meaning from regiment to the army group level. Mostly at the divisional and corps level. There narrative does include individual accounts of the fighting.
What makes is fascinating is how the French saw the war and their role. The book discusses their challenges in using colonial troops, integrating the marquis, and getting along with Americans who often did not understand their sensitivities. For example, the French refused to give up Strausborg for political reasons.
On the American side, the story of the 7th Army is one rarely told, and here it is told well. The 7th Army saw its share of hard fighting and played an important role in the eventual victory.
I recommend this book to all.
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I was expecting more anecdotes about experiences from the men in the front lines. Although there was some in this book, the book primarily wrote about what this division and that regiment did, listing off names of towns that were not available on the few (in my opinion) poor maps provided. And, there was the continual relating to what this general and that general did. So, if you are interested in reading another dry book about book about generals and the movement of divisions to towns that aren't on the map, then this book is for you. Do you want mine?
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International affairs analyst Harry Yeide and defense think-tank researcher Mark Stout present First to the Rhine: The 6th Army Group in World War II, an in-depth study of the 6th Army Group and the "champagne campaign" of World War II - a nine-month struggle to push the Nazis back past the Rhone River, the Vosges Mountains, the Rhine River and the Danube. The 6th Army Group consisted of American veterans, and its French units swelled with tens of thousands of Free French Forces of the Interior and the Maquis. First to the Rhine spotlights little-known battles, such as the one at Montelimar when an ad hoc American armored command plus the 36th Infantry Division almost cut off the entire German Nineteenth Army, in addition to well-known events. First to the Rhine draws upon official American and French after-action reports, contemporary combat records such as detailed S-3 and G-3 operations journals, U.S. Army interviews of its soldiers shortly after actions occurred, and the personal journals of American, French, and German commanders. Of especial interest is the study devoted to the French role in combat and the relationship between the U.S. Army and French forces that faced down enemy fire under American command. A handful of official U.S. Army photographs illustrate this thorough chronicle, accessible to lay readers as well as military historians.
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