I picked this book up in Chapter's Book Store in Dublin for One Euro and having finished it, I think it was a fair price. It's not that this was a particularly bad book, but rather disjointed and let down by the authors over use of details he picked up in researching for material.
The story tells the history of the 3rd Royal Tank Regiment (R.T.R.) through the lives of a hundred men who fought against the Germans and Italians from the disasters of Dunkirk, Greece and Crete and then final victories from the Normandy beaches to the final push up to the Baltic and liberation of concentration camps.
The author fell into the same trap as an earlier book review about the Battle of Somme. On both occasions the authors seemed to want us to appreciate how much research they made and then threw it all out again, as if he was a drunk getting sick on a Friday night. This over use of names and units stops the book from flowing as gaining any momentum. As much as I didn't want to I found myself jumping down a line or two at a time, hoping it would improve.
In the last third of the book, the author either realised his mistake or just ran out of names to throw me and the book suddenly became worth reading. It's a shame that Delaforce didn't realise his mistake from page one, as the actions taken by those very young men who fought in these battles is story worth telling. Telling a lot better than it has been done here.
Score 5 out 10