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Brothers in Arms
- Author
- James Holland
- Narrator
- Al Murray
- Publisher
- Transworld
- Publish Date
- 30 September 2021
- Run Time
- 16 hours 18 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
- Genre
- Second World War, Land forces and warfare, Military vehicles and transport of air, land and sea, Military institutions, European history
- Rating
- 5.0 (1 review)
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What to expect
Brought to you by Penguin.
** READ BY AL MURRAY **
'War as it should be described. The book is an assault on the senses...Painful to read but impossible to put down' Gerard de Groot, The Times
From the bestselling author of Normandy '44 and Sicily '43 comes an extraordinary account of the last year of the Second World War
It took a certain type of courage to serve in a tank in World War Two. Encased in steel, surrounded by highly explosive shells, a big and slow-moving target, every crew member was utterly vulnerable to enemy attack from all sides. Living - and dying - in a tank was a brutal way to fight a war.
The Sherwood Rangers were one of the great tank regiments. They had learned their trade the hard way, under the burning sun of North Africa, on the battlefields of El Alamein and Alam el Halfa. By the time they landed on Gold Beach on D-Day, they were toughened by experience and ready for combat.
From that moment on, the Sherwood Rangers were in the thick of the action til the war's end. They and their Sherman tanks covered thousands of miles and endured some of the fiercest fighting in Western Europe. The first British unit to cross into Germany, their engagements stretch from the Normandy beaches, to the bridges at Eindhoven, and the grinding crossing of the Siegfried Line and on into the Nazi heartland.
Through compelling eye-witness testimony and James Holland's expert analysis of the war in the West, Brothers In Arms brings to vivid life the final bloody scramble across Europe and gives the most powerful account to date of what it was really like to fight in the dying days of World War Two.
© James Holland 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021
Critics Review
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Brothers in Arms does not disappoint...he has an eye for detail...He seemingly incorporates technical information about tanks and anti-tank weapons so that we get a feel for how men interacted with the technology of war...likewise, amid the numbers that demarcate hills of military deployments, Holland takes us down to the individual's experience.
Times Literary Supplement
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War as it should be described - ordinary men facing extraordinary horror. Caught in the drama of battle, we sometimes forget the good men who died. Holland, to his credit, forces us to remember
The Times BOOK OF THE WEEK
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Powerful and moving...James Holland's greatest strength as a military historian is that he brings humanity to his work. Brothers In Arms does more than just tell the story of the Sherwood Rangers...Holland has delved into their world and brought their characters to life.
The Spectator
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Their [the Sherwood Rangers] story can be seen as a reflection of the British war as a whole and Holland tells it very well, using his trademark technique of immersive detail and a cast of well-defined characters. If you are a fan of his style and I am, you will find that once again it works brilliantly
The Daily Telegraph
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An intimate and harrowing portrayal of warfare
Radio Times
User Reviews
Book 5.0
Narration 5.0
-
5.0 5.0
If you like this sort of thing a very good read /listen. A vast cast of characters are mentioned & I didn't manage to remember all of them each time they were mentioned, but I had my favourites.
By its nature a book of this type tends to be rather bitty, a series of anecdotes, but Holland manages to weave it well together, pulling back now to give a strategic snapshot, closing in on one soldier's day in Brussels, then a sharp engagement & the loss of a crew, followed by a discussion of some technical detail of tanks & tank warfare. A good balance for the human side of military history.
Al Murray of course shares a podcast with Holland and is perhaps the perfect narrator for his work, speaking from a similar place. Apart from this, he also produces a warm, fluent & measured reading.
You have to like this type of book, but if you do, you'll like this, a lot.paraloid 2022-11-09
Details
- Author
- James Holland
- Narrator
- Al Murray
- Duration
- 16 hours 18 minutes
- Release Date
- 30 September 2021
- ISBN
- 9781473592940
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Transworld
- Genre
- Second World War, Land forces and warfare, Military vehicles and transport of air, land and sea, Military institutions, European history
- Rating
- 5.0(1 review)
- Narration
- 5.0(1 review)
Synopsis
Brought to you by Penguin.** READ BY AL MURRAY **'War as it should be described. The book is an assault on the senses...Painful to read but impossible to put down' Gerard de Groot, The TimesFrom the bestselling author of Normandy '44 and Sicily '43 comes an extraordinary account of the last year of the Second World WarIt took a certain type of courage to serve in a tank in World War Two. Encased in steel, surrounded by highly explosive shells, a big and slow-moving target, every crew member was utterly vulnerable to enemy attack from all sides. Living - and dying - in a tank was a brutal way to fight a war.The Sherwood Rangers were one of the great tank regiments. They had learned their trade the hard way, under the burning sun of North Africa, on the battlefields of El Alamein and Alam el Halfa. By the time they landed on Gold Beach on D-Day, they were toughened by experience and ready for combat.From that moment on, the Sherwood Rangers were in the thick of the action til the war's end. They and their Sherman tanks covered thousands of miles and endured some of the fiercest fighting in Western Europe. The first British unit to cross into Germany, their engagements stretch from the Normandy beaches, to the bridges at Eindhoven, and the grinding crossing of the Siegfried Line and on into the Nazi heartland.Through compelling eye-witness testimony and James Holland's expert analysis of the war in the West, Brothers In Arms brings to vivid life the final bloody scramble across Europe and gives the most powerful account to date of what it was really like to fight in the dying days of World War Two.© James Holland 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021
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