THE WAR: Fifth Year

The value of this series lies chiefly in its reference use now and in the future, for Prof. of the University of Toronto is making this a record of history in the making, with text, maps, documentary appendices, chronology, tables and the texts of documents. He gives us fast moving pictures of the European, Pacific and China-Burma-India theatres of war. In the months between October 1943 and September 1944, the German High Command was facing the knowledge of inevitable defeat and the necessity for revising their plans. This book records the tremendous alterations on the eastern front, the period of frustration in Italy, and the opening months of invasion of Normandy and recapture of France. On the whole the text is simply a running account, with too little color and drama and personalities to make it popular for mere reading. But occasionally the author injects comments and criticism, as he does in the case of Churchill's speech praising Franco for non-intervention. The general point of view is so objective that one could not tell -- in the main -- that the author was a Canadian... Useful for reference; rather dull reading.