This book tells the story of the German 15th Army from its inception in 1942 to its arrival in the Netherlands at the end of September 1944.
It follows the formula of the previous two books, ‘Autumn Gale’ and ‘Kampfgruppe Walther’ and so will again be of interest to modellers, tank buffs and fans of military history alike. It also serves as a kind of prequel to the other two books completing the trilogy.
Also, one chapter deals with the fighting in Normandy since the army was involved there until the end of June and so should appeal to anyone interested in that campaign since it contains a lot of new information. This also goes for the main story, never told anywhere before, which fills the gap in the books about World War Two in the West that somehow always skip from Normandy to Market Garden as if nothing relevant happened in between.
The book is only slightly smaller than ‘Autumn Gale’ with 528 pages, it has over 100 maps and over 900 pictures, most of them never published before. Contents:
Preface
Introduction
1 The Lull before the Storm (15 February 1942- 5 June 1944)
2 Into battle (6 June – 20 June 1944)
3 An army in waiting (21 June – 25 August 1944)
4 New Masters and a New Threat (25 – 28 August 1944)
5 Supercharge (29 August 1944)
6 Grave Danger (30 August 1944)
7 Disaster on the Somme (31 August 1944)
8 Into the breach (1 September 1944)
9 A golden opportunity? (2 September 1944)
10 Operation Sabot (3 September 1944)
11 Antwerp, the Turning Point (4 September 1944)
12 Change of Plan (5 September 1944)
13 Break Out! (6 September 1944)
14 Fall Back! (7 September 1944)
15 The end of a phase (8 September 1944)
16 Firming up (9 - 11 September 1944)
17 Slowing down (12 - 16 September 1944)
18 New Assignments (17 - 23 September 1944)
Conclusions
Sources
Appendix I 15. Armee Order of Battle 1943-1944
Appendix II 15. Armee changes in Order of Battle
Appendix III Divisions
Appendix IV Security Units
Appendix V The Scheldt Crossings
Separate texts:
The Army Headquarters in Tourcoing (Chapter 1)
The Montes-Gassicourt bridgehead (after Chapter 3)
The French Resistance (after Chapter 7)
The Flying Bomb Threat (after Chapter 8)
The Pocket at Mons (after Chapter 9)
German Forces in Antwerp (Chapter 11)
Frogmen in the Night (after Chapter 11)
The Channel Ports (after Chapter 14)
The Channel Guns (after Chapter 14)
The Air Effort over the Wester Scheldt (Conclusions)
The peregrinations of an artillery unit (Conclusions)
Allowing an army to escape (after Conclusions)

Author(s): Jack Didden/Maarten Swarts
Publisher: De Zwardvisch
Pages: 528
Language: English
Edition: 1
Year of publication: 2022
Dimensions: 28,5 x 23 cm
Binding: Hardcover
Weight: 2.80 kg