Top Secret

New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1946. First Edition . Hard Back. Very Good/Good. 5 1/2" X 8 1/4. 373 Pages Indexed. Red boards with silver lettering to spine. no marks or stamps. Dust jacket has some chipping along the spine area edges and a tape repair to the bottom of the spine area. It remains a bit tattered along the edges. The $3.00 flap price is unclipped and the jacket with flaps is complete. This is the inside story of how the generals planned and ran the invasion of Europe and the battle of Germany. It is a record of bold leaders and timid ones, of personal and national conflicts behind the front of Anglo-American collaboration. It tells of decisions that saved thousands of lives and decisions that added agonizing months to the war. Written with no political or military axe to grind, no official record to uphold, it is the most dramatic story to come out of the war. It begins in London a year before D-day, with the story of the conflict between the Americans and the British over whether or not there should be an invasion of northern France. From there on it is narrative of the great events of our war in Europe as seen from the map rooms of the planners and trailer headquarters of the top field commanders. Here is the inside story of the British defeat at Caen, the American breakout at St. Lo, the fateful mistakes that prevented the war from being won in the fall of 1944, the high military politics of the battle of the Ardennes, the way in which the final battles of the war were won by American generals despite hell and high levels.The author writes as a superb reporter and the knowledge of an officer who saw the planning and execution of the invasion from the beginning and as a participant. After seeing service in North Africa he went to England in the spring of 1943, as a staff captain in the headquarters of the infant American Army. From then on he served in the strategic and tactical planning sections of a number of senior commands, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. For some months during the invasion he was an American observer attached to General Sir Bernard Montgomery's staff. From the battle of St. Lo on, he was in the plans section of General Omar N. Bradley's field headquarters. Throughout the campaign in Europe he did liaison work between the staffs of Bradley, Montgomery, and Eisenhower. He took part in the D-day assault in Normandy; other times he was attached to combat commands where he was able to observe the results of high strategy at the fighting front. He was awarded the Legion of Merit for his services in connection with the planning of the invasion. This book was written in the five months following the author's release from the Army in August, 1945. Illustrated with seven maps.