Allies in battledress : from Normandy to the North Sea, 1944-45 : organisation, uniforms, insignia, tanks and vehicles, armament, equipment

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Allies in Battledress

As with my previous books, « The British soldier » (2 volumes), and the « Canadian soldier» (1 volume), this volume will conclude a sweeping trilogy dedicated to the various Allied formations and units that were engaged in the north-west Europe campaign under the command of the Anglo-Canadian 21st Army Group.

Although many of these soldiers had already seen action against the German army since 1939, thousands of volunteers gathered in Great Britain under their national colours and wore the same battledress as their British brothers in arms alongside whom they would fight. Preceded by the heroic French parachutists of the 2^e RCP (4th SAS) dropped into the heart of Brittany in the last hours of 5 June 1944, foreign volunteers saw action in Normandy, along the coast of the English Channel, in Belgium, Holland and finally into Germany in the spring of 1945. What were the specific characteristics of these soldiers so ardently motivated by the hope of taking part in the liberation of their motherland ?

It is the ambition of this book to help the reader discover the answer to this question with a whole host of previously unpublished details such as could only be found in a plethora of books available from specialist bookshops. Whether an amateur historian, collector, modeller or a member of a re-enactment group, the reader will find something of interest in what is, in the end, a « text book », the fruit of long and painstaking work that makes possible the acquisition of in-depth knowledge of the « Allies in Battledress ».