Robin Neillands – författare

Who was really responsible for the failure at Nijmegen, the destruction of the British First Airborne Division at Arnhem, and the failure of Operation Market Garden? Why was Montgomery threatened with the sack when he had just retrieved Bradley''s failure in the Battle of the Bulge? Was General Eisenhower''s command strategy either workable or wise, and did Bradley and Patton undermine it? Even after sixty years, the questions remain.

In this account of the 1944 post-Normandy campaign, historian Robin Neillands disentangles events from the media myths that have come to surround them to get to the truth of what really happened. He examines the often difficult relationship between General Eisenhower and British Field Marshal Montgomery. If Eisenhower had taken his advice, would the Allies have made quicker progress? Could the war in Europe have been won in 1944 if the right strategies had been employed?

With superb battle narratives and clear analysis of success and failure at every point, Neillands casts a new and informed light on the costly struggle for the Rhine.

The story of D-Day, told in the words of those who were actually there.''The gigantic scale of the invasion is stunningly evoked'' - MAIL ON SUNDAYAt fifteen minutes after midnight on June 6 1944, Operation ''Overlord'', the Allied invasion of Hitler''s Fortress Europe, became reality. In this penetrating account of D-Day and the period which followed, Robin Neillands and Roderick de Normann weave objective narration with personal accounts from those who were there to create a matchless history of the largest amphibious assault ever launched.

A concise and entertaining study of the vicious wars between the English noble houses of York and Lancaster during the 15th century.The vicious wars between the English noble houses of York and Lancaster marked the end of medieval England and the birth of the Renaissance. The end of that thirty-year period of strife and bloodshed saw the collapse of the great Plantagenet dynasty, rulers of all England and much of France for over three hundred years, and the rise of the Tudors. All the characters are here: Henry V and his luckless son, Henry VI, together with his unfortunate uncles, John of Bedford and Humphrey of Gloucester, not to mention the notorious Richard III and his nephews - The Princes in the Tower. Neillands skilfully tackles this complex period providing a clear and entertaining analysis.

A fresh and incisive examination of one of the Second World War''s crucial campaigns, the battle for Normandy in the months after D-Day.

What happened to the Allied armies in Normandy in the months after D-Day, 1944? Why, after the initial success of the landings, did their advance stall a few miles inland from the beaches? Why did the British take so long to capture Caen? Why did the US infantry struggle so much in the bocage south of Omaha beach? Who was right about the conduct of the land campaign - Eisenhower or Montgomery? How did the Germans, deprived of air support, manage to hold off such a massive Allied force for more than two months? And if Enigma was allowing the Allies to read German battleplans, why did things go wrong as often as they did?

THE BATTLE OF NORMANDY re-examines the demands and difficulties of the campaign and sheds new light on both with the aid of accounts from veterans on both sides. (Oral history forms a large part of the book.) It also analyses in detail the plans and performance of the commanders involved: Eisenhower, Bradley, Patton, Montgomery, Crerar and, of course, Rommel. Controversial and at times catastrophic, the Battle of Normandy was the last great set-piece battle in history and is long overdue for reassessment.