Villers-Bocage: Operation 'Perch': The Complete Account

(Hardback)

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In this book, Daniel Taylor provides a minutely detailed examination of the course of the fighting, exploring both sides of the debate, allowing the reader to evaluate the strength of the argument. Dozens of first-hand accounts are brought together and placed into a comprehensible and accurate time-line. VILLERS-BOCAGE Operation Perch, the complete account Villers-Bocage remains lodged in the imagination of many readers as a costly and controversial defeat for the British Army in Normandy. This point of view is entirely reliant on just ten minutes of fighting plucked from a two-day battle. This account sets out to rectify that view. Based on prolific first-hand information, including extensive interviews with veterans of the battle, this book explores every facet of the available information, subjecting it to in-depth analysis. Far from being the crushing defeat popularised in many histories, which tend to rely on German propaganda, Villers-Bocage can, in fact, be viewed as a remarkable and compelling recovery from an ambush. The shortcoming was that much of the territory gained in the advance was relinquished, so the first telling of the story was given to the Germans who, quite legitimately under wartime conditions, made the most of their advantage. In this book, Daniel Taylor provides a minutely detailed examination of the course of the fighting, exploring both sides of the debate, allowing the reader to evaluate the strength of the argument. Dozens of first-hand accounts are brought together and placed into a comprehensible and accurate time-line. Both German and British official histories and personal accounts have been pieced together providing an astonishing level of corroboration. Accompanying the written history is extensive mapping and an unprecedented quantity of photographs, from multiple sources, which add definition and visual verification. This book lays to rest the myths built up around the battle. AUTHOR: Daniel Taylor has studied 20th Century warfare for over thirty years. The recording and commemoration of the actions of soldiers during an era of global conflict remains been his passion. Now that the veterans of those wars have all but disappeared, his ambition is to represent their stories to inspire and inform younger generations. After serving in the Territorial Army during the 1980s and 90s, he started writing articles for specialist magazines and lecturing on military history, including venues such as RMA Sandhurst, the National Army Museum, and the Tank Museum, also appearing in and presenting TV documentaries. In recent years Daniel has become the Curator for the Kent & Sharpshooters Yeomanry Museum, based at Hever Castle in Kent. He continues to lead battlefield tours to the original locations to help better explain their significance for schools, various units of the British Army, and groups of veterans (and members of their families), retracing the footsteps of the past. Whilst specialising in Normandy, he has led tour so the Western Front, Italy, Libya and Egypt. He now lives in Kent, is married, and has two sons. 14 colour, 194 b/w illustrations

Reviews

"If you're looking for a tactical WWII battle in a French village, this provides a top-rate resource."-- "Historical Minatures Gaming Society"

Author Bio

Daniel Taylor has studied 20th Century warfare for over thirty years. The recording and commemoration of the actions of soldiers during an era of global conflict remains been his passion. Now that the veterans of those wars have all but disappeared, his ambition is to represent their stories to inspire and inform younger generations. After serving in the Territorial Army during the 1980s and 90s, he started writing articles for specialist magazines and lecturing on military history, including venues such as RMA Sandhurst, the National Army Museum, and the Tank Museum, also appearing in and presenting TV documentaries. In recent years Daniel has become the Curator for the Kent & Sharpshooters Yeomanry Museum, based at Hever Castle in Kent. He continues to lead battlefield tours to the original locations to help better explain their significance for schools, various units of the British Army, and groups of veterans (and members of their families), retracing the footsteps of the past. Whilst specialising in Normandy, he has led tour so the Western Front, Italy, Libya and Egypt. He now lives in Kent, is married, and has two sons.