Feuding Allies: The Private Wars of the High Command

Breuer, a writer of popular histories of WWII (Hoodwinking Hitler), focuses here on personality clashes and policy conflicts within the Allied coalition in WWII. Politicians and generals alike sometimes seemed to spend more time feuding with each other than fighting the Axis, according to Breuer, who emphasizes the human aspects of these feuds. The Allied leaders were men of strong will who deferred readily to no one. Substantive differences within and among the states of the alliance were correspondingly magnified. What was unusual was Allied success at compromising or camouflaging such divisions as the three-way tensions among Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt; the tempestuous relationship between supreme Allied commander Dwight D. Eisenhower and British field marshal Bernard L. Montgomery; and the Pacific rivalry between Army and Navy long enough to destroy their common enemies. A breezy read for military/diplomatic history buffs. Photos. (Oct.)