THE KILLING GROUND

This author's documentaries (The Big Pick Up and Squadron Air) of the war now include the part that the tanks played from D-Day invasion to the wipe-out at Falaise. He follows the men who man the behemoths from the landing, over and away from the beach, on to their awkward, deadly course over the land, readying for their meeting with the German Panzers: he tallies the loss of men and machines, the threat of loss of morale, the slow gains-against personal fears and despair as well as against the dangers from the enemy. His account is a step-by-step report of a battle in the making and a battle fought through the men who lived it -- in talk and action, in the atmosphere of fighting men and Army terms, terrain and tanks, and in sharp spotlighting of incident and character. Unobtrusive and quiet, this continues the able history-into-fiction of the previous books for the more military minded.