The Guns At Last Light: The War in Europe, 1944-1945

Rick Atkinson recently completed The Guns at Last Light: The War in Europe, 1944-1945, the final volume of his Liberation Trilogy, a narrative history of the U.S. military’s role in the liberation of Europe in World War II. The first volume, An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943, received the Pulitzer Prize and was acclaimed by the Wall Street Journal as “the best World War II battle narrative since Cornelius Ryan’s classics, The Longest Day and A Bridge Too Far.” The second volume, The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944, drew praise from the New York Times as “a triumph of narrative history, elegantly written…and rooted in the sight and sounds of battle.” The Guns at Last Light, covering the last year of the European war, from Normandy to Berlin, was  published in May 2013.

Atkinson researches his topics to an unbelievable depth. This allows him to write narrative history in a manner which makes familiar subjects seem new and fresh.  I like that.  The characters come alive and hold your interest.   If you like Steven Ambrose and Bruce Catton, you love this book.