Book description
During World War II, U. S. Army generals often maintained diaries of
their activities and the day-to-day operations of their command. These
diaries have proven to be invaluable historical resources for World
War II scholars and enthusiasts alike. Until now, one of the most
historically significant of these diaries, the one kept for General
Courtney H. Hodges of the First U. S. Army, has not been widely
available to the public. Maintained by two of Hodges's aides, Major
William C. Sylvan and Captain Francis G. Smith Jr., this unique
military journal offers a vivid, firsthand account detailing the
actions, decisions, and daily activities of General Hodges and the
First Army throughout the war. The diary opens on June 2, 1944, as
Hodges and the First Army prepare for the Allied invasion of France.
In the weeks and months that follow, the diary highlights the crucial
role that Hodges's often undervalued command -- the first to cross the
German border, the first to cross the Rhine, the first to close to the
Elbe -- played in the Allied operations in northwest Europe. The diary
recounts the First Army's involvement in the fight for France, the
Siegfried Line campaign, the Battle of the Bulge, the drive to the
Roer River, and the crossing of the Rhine, following Hodges and his
men through savage European combat until the German surrender in May
1945. Popularly referred to as the "Sylvan Diary," after its
primary writer, the diary has previously been available only to
military historians and researchers, who were permitted to use it at
only the Dwight D. Eisenhower Library, the U. S. Army Center for
Military History, or the U. S. Army Military History Institute.
Retired U. S. Army historian John T. Greenwood has now edited this
text in its entirety and added a biography of General Hodges as well
as extensive notes that clarify the diary's historical details.
Normandy to Victory provides military history enthusiasts with
valuable insights into the thoughts and actions of a leading American
commander whose army played a crucial role in the Allied successes of
World War II.
""Normandy to Victory" is a fascinating book,
filled with detail and immensely useful to anyone trying to understand
the Allied campaign in Northern Europe during World War II. John T.
Greenwood has done an excellent job of editing the diary as well as
the terms, military equipment and obscure references that the general
reader might not understand." --J. W. Thacker, Bowling Green
Daily News" --
John T. Greenwood, retired Chief of the Office of Medical History,
Office of the Surgeon General, U. S. Army, is the author of Medics at
War: Military Medicine from Colonial Times to the Twenty-first Century
and Milestones of Aviation.
