cover image The Forgotten Battle: Overloon and the Maas Salient, 1944-1945

The Forgotten Battle: Overloon and the Maas Salient, 1944-1945

A. Korthals Altes, A. Korthals Altes. Da Capo Press, $24.95 (226pp) ISBN 978-1-885119-03-2

This account of the fight for southern Holland during WWII is told largely from the viewpoint of surviving participants. The Battle of Overloon and the Maas Salient was fought by British and U.S. divisions against paratroopers who formed the backbone of German resistance, but the emphasis is on the terror experienced by Dutch civilians. The narrative is studded with unexpected scenes: chaotic conditions in an insane asylum on the edge of the battlefield; farmers asking soldiers to mercy-kill their suffering animals; the inexplicable appearance of a German cavalry unit that destroyed itself by attacking British tanks; a British officer stalking Germans with a bow and arrows. A less frequently told story is the extent of looting and pillaging carried out by British enlisted men in liberated zones. The authors, Dutch historians of WWII, have written an engrossing account of an obscure but not unimportant campaign of the European theater. Illustrations. (Dec.)