Snow and Steel

Much of what I have said about James Holland can also be said of his friend Peter Caddick-Adams, whose first-rate works include Monte Cassino. Ten Armies in Hell (2012), Sand and Steel: A New History of D-Day (2019), and this, by far the best book on the last major German offensive. Adroit at capturing the German perspective, Caddick-Adams is also very good on the American response. A lengthy read, but worth it.

How many times have you read a 700-page book that feels more like 200 pages and actually leaves you wanting more? Caddick-Adams’s scope is magisterial and yet the abject beauty of his marvelous writing moves the narrative along with a crispness that is hard to appreciate until you find yourself deep into the book and feeling almost like you just started it. His chapters crackle with the depth and intensity of a polished staff ride, and that’s appropriate because this authoritative tome is the product of decades of on-site investigation, deep-dive archival research, and the illumination that came from more… show more.