Hope you understand if this review contains some insight into the After The Battle standard presentations. These books, of which there are now over 86 issues (and this number does not count the WWI, Military, Aviation, Maritime or Ancient History books), take a photographic trip through the battles or campaigns named (e.g. Arnhem, Bastogne, Omaha Beach). These publications take great pains to compare the war time photographs to modern day images of the same location, which in most cases still stand today. Most of the titles are available as eBooks, Audiobooks, DVDs, and the original magazines.

My interest stems from several aspects in my life, including my father, who was a participant in several Pacific landings and invasions in South Korea and in Lebanon. My wife and I have also visited several of the cities in the Alsace including Colmar and Mulhouse and were especially pleased with Colmar. Not trying to take anything away from Rick Steves, but Colmar’s population speaks French & German with ease and the town’s physical layout is reasonably small; the local food is also a blend of both cultures as well.

This is a lengthy book with 296 pages, hundreds of black and white images with a few color images on the fly leaf cover. A fascinating series of pictures involve PFC Audie Murphy (pages 88-91) and later as a Lieutenant receiving the Medal of Honor (pages 274-277) and his untimely death in 1977. One footnote to this later section, as he was not ‘awarded’ nor did he ’win’ the MOH, but a ‘recipient’ of the Medal of Honor.

However, the real value of this book is in the photo images themselves which provide an extremely rich record of the important invasion of France up through Loraine region into Germany. There is a fantastic collection of photos of Operation ‘Dragoon’ (on 15 August 1944) in the several significant segments covering the planning, the invasion itself. I am guessing that I have previously seen only a hand full of these images before the publication of this book. One could easily model diorama scenes from any one of hundreds of images including several shots of the L-4B Grasshoppers used during and after the invasion. There are also many images of burned out Allied and German tanks. I saw only a half dozen or so pages which are filled with text only.

Without hesitation I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in planning and invasion of Southern France and the ensuing hard-fought battles, eventually reaching Germany.

Table of Contents

• Introduction – from Riviera to the Rhine 6
• Operation Dragoon – The Invasion of Southern France 8
• Pursuit To The North 146
• The Battle of Alsace 188