Victory at Mortain

A powerful German counterattack in Normandy in August 1944 might have been one of the Wehrmacht's great shining moments in World War II. The odds were certainly in their favour. Determined to drive the Allies back to the English Channel, elements of four combat-hardened panzer divisions faced off against a single American infantry division near the town of Mortain. Instead, the Americans held their ground, enabling the Allied armies to secure the invasion and ultimately liberate France. In a vivid recreation of this pivotal battle, Mark Reardon tells how the 30th Infantry Division held off the German panzer juggernaut, which was designed to drive a wedge between Allied forces. In recounting this showdown, the author offers a perspective on the German defeat in Normandy and a convincing counterpoint to the conventional view of most military analysts that Germany lost the war as a result of Allied material superiority or Hitler's strategic meddling.