The Rising Tide: A Novel of World War II
by Jeff Shaara
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jeff ShaaraEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-05-20
ISBN: 0345461371
Number of pages: 608
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Book Reviews of The Rising Tide: A Novel of World War II
Book Review: Page-turning story of the allied liberations of North Africa and Sicily
Summary: 5 Stars
Jeff Shaara delivers another historic fiction masterpiece in "The Rising Tide". In his preface to the book, he writes "What could I possibly add that hasn't already been written about so many times before? ... My goal is to find a few voices, and to tell their story through their eyes, to put you the same room with some of the most important and fascinating characters in our history." He continues "My goal here is to offer you a good story. I hope you find it so." After completing this book, I feel that he certainly succeeded.
The book begins with a quick introduction to the strategic environment leading to the rise of the nationalist socialist (Nazi) regime in Germany. Along with the rise of the Nazi party comes the political ambition of expanding Germany's borders and restoring prestige lost at the conclusion of World War I. With the strategic stage set, Shaara provides a brief biographical sketch of two main characters - Dwight Eisenhower and Erwin Rommel. From here, the reader departs on the fictionalized conversations of the people who set forth in motion the allies first counterthrust to the Wehrmacht juggernaut.
Shaara is the master of weaving the tactical, operational, and strategic viewpoints of the same events. He begins the story by relating the experiences of a British tank crew facing the onslaught of the Afrikakorps Panzers. Contrasting this perspective, he provides the reader with the conversations on strategy between General Rommel and his staff.
You share the thrill of the Afrikakorps Soldaten as they shred the predictable defenses of the British in Libya. You feel the anguish as Winston Churchill relieves the British Commander Auchinlech and replaces him with the flamboyant Bernard Montgomery. Montgomery relieves Auchinlech in time to prepare the British defenses at the Egyptian town of El Alamein. The flow of story travels with British army as they chase the Desert Fox across Libya.
The American characters are introduced as Shaara discusses the Allied planning to bring the battle to the Germans. Shaara accurately portrays the debates between British and American strategists between opening the "second" front in France, or in North Africa. With the debate settled, the next order of business was the selection of the command structure for the invasion of North Africa. Again, Shaara captures the nuances of the decisions to appoint an American as the overall commander with British officers as the component commanders.
No book on the American operations in North Africa would be complete without a discussion on the generals who made the operation a success. Readers gain an appreciation for the meteoric rise of stars like Omar Bradley, George Patton and Jim Gavin, to the firing of Fredendall who was responsible for the American debacle at Kasserine.
Shaara's story supports Clausewitzian adage of "warfare is a continuation of politics by other means." Shaara introduces the reader to Robert Murphy, the American State Department diplomat who worked behind the scenes to neuter the possibility of Vichy French resistance to the American invasions.
After the German surrender in Tunisia, the book continues with Operation Husky, the liberation of Sicily. While telling the story of the race to Messina, readers are introduced to the infamous Patton slapping incident. With Sicily secured, the invasion of Italy proper can begin. At this point, Eisenhower and a large portion of the American forces move to England in preparation for the invasion of France.
Shaara's story of these historic events is absolutely spell-binding. He masterfully wove the stories of men like Sgt Jesse Adams, a paratrooper from the 82d Airborne, with the tales of the key decision makers who put him in harm's way. Shaara also showed no preference for the side of the conflict. His fictional conversations were factually accurate and told the stories both the Axis and Allied warriors. This book will be a page-turner for the World War II history fan!
Summary of The Rising Tide: A Novel of World War II
A modern master of the historical novel, Jeff Shaara has painted brilliant depictions of the Civil War, the Revolutionary War, and World War I. Now he embarks upon his most ambitious epic, a trilogy about the military conflict that defined the twentieth century. The Rising Tide begins a staggering work of fiction bound to be a new generation?s most poignant chronicle of World War II. With you-are-there immediacy, painstaking historical detail, and all-inclusive points of view, Shaara portrays the momentous and increasingly dramatic events that pulled America into the vortex of this monumental conflict.As Hitler conquers Poland, Norway, France, and most of Western Europe, England struggles to hold the line. When Germany?s ally Japan launches a stunning attack on Pearl Harbor, America is drawn into the war, fighting to hold back the Japanese conquest of the Pacific, while standing side-by-side with their British ally, the last hope for turning the tide of the war.
Through unforgettable battle scenes in the unforgiving deserts of North Africa and the rugged countryside of Sicily, Shaara tells this story through the voices of this conflict?s most heroic figures, some familiar, some unknown. As British and American forces strike into the ?soft underbelly? of Hitler?s Fortress Europa, the new weapons of war come clearly into focus. In North Africa, tank battles unfold in a tapestry of dust and fire unlike any the world has ever seen. In Sicily, the Allies attack their enemy with a barely tested weapon: the paratrooper. As battles rage along the coasts of the Mediterranean, the momentum of the war begins to shift, setting the stage for the massive invasion of France, at a seaside resort called Normandy.
More than an unprecedented and intimate portrait of those who waged this astonishing global war, The Rising Tide is a vivid gallery of characters both immortal and unknown: the as-yet obscure administrator Dwight D. Eisenhower, whose tireless efficiency helped win the war; his subordinates, clashing in both style and personality, from George Patton and Mark Clark to Omar Bradley and Bernard Montgomery. In the desolate hills and deserts, the Allies confront Erwin Rommel, the battlefield genius known as ?the Desert Fox,? a wounded beast who hands the Americans their first humiliating defeat in the European theater of the war. From tank driver to paratrooper to the men who gave the commands, Shaara?s stirring portrayals bring the heroic and the tragic to life in brilliant detail.
A new level of accomplishment from this already acclaimed author, The Rising Tide will leave readers eager for the next volume of this superb saga of the war that saved and changed the world.
From the Hardcover edition.
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