Books in Brief: El Alamein to the River Sangro & Normandy to the Baltic

El Alamein to the River Sangro & Normandy to the Baltic, by Field Marshal the Viscount Montgomery of Alamein (St. Martin’s 421 pp., $15). Montgomery has always rubbed a great many people the wrong way. The wiry, irascible Marshal has never suffered fools gladly and yet many of his critics accuse him of being something of a crank himself, overstressing the mystique of the commander in the age of mechanized, depersonalized warfare. Nevertheless, his military writing is good, sharp (albeit rather dry) reportage of the British regimental history sort, and the reissue of his chronicles of the African and European campaigns in this attractive new edition is welcome. Eighty pages of maps and diagrams and a good selection of photographs help justify the rather hefty price of this réchauffé bit of militaria, and one can only regret that nearly all of the American, British, and German senior officers who might respond with contradictory views are either dead or mentally ’round the bend.