First to the Rhine: The 6th Army Group in World War II

Military Review, March-April, 2008 by Dan C. Fullerton

FIRST TO THE RHINE: The 6th Army Group in World War II, Harry Yeide and Mark Stout, Zenith Press, St. Paul, MN, 2007, 376 pages, $27.95.

Harry Yeide and Mark Stout's First, to the Rhine: The 6th Army Group in World War II is a factual and objective history of one of the lesser known aspects of the War in Europe: the 6th Army Group's campaign from the invasion of Southern France through VE Day. Yeide and Stout seek to redress the short shrift typically given to this important aspect of the war, an oversight that is puzzling given the logistic and strategic importance of Marseilles and the Rhone River valley. At least 40 fully supplied American and French combat divisions were able to enter the fight against German forces in the west through the southern French ports liberated by the French 1st and American 7th armies.

To detail this usually neglected and often-misunderstood aspect of the war, the authors rely heavily on a wide array of primary and secondary sources that include after-action reports, award citations, unit operations, journals, personal diaries, unit histories, and biographies of key individuals. This mix of sources enables Yeide and Stout to present a well-balanced chronological history of 6th Army Group's operations from the initial stages of the Dragoon landings in August 1944, up through Operation Nordwind, the German counteroffensive during the bitter cold of January 1945, to the final campaigns along the Danube and into Austria in April 1945. Neither the French nor the American contributions to the campaigns are neglected, and the authors provide ample information on the German dispositions, plans, and personalities that figured prominently in the campaigns. Key allied commanders such as Devers, de Lattre, Patch, and Truscott are all included, but so too are the common Soldiers' contributions down to the squad level. The result is a comprehensive picture of the fighting on the southern edge of Eisenhower's Great Crusade.

While the authors have meticulously researched their material, they do not get bogged down in unnecessary details. Yeide and Stout's crisp narrative style takes readers inside the strategic and operational command decisions; it also makes them feel the agonies and sacrifices endured by the common Soldiers of both sides. The authors also take great care to place the southern operations into the larger picture of the war in Europe so that the reader understands the 6th Army Group's purpose and contributions without taking anything away from their better-known counterparts: Bradley's 12th Army Group and Montgomery's 21st Army Group. First to the Rhine fills a long-felt void in the European Theater's operational histories. It is a valuable book for both the casual historical reader and the serious student of military history.

Dan C. Fullerton, Ph.D.

Fort Leavenworth, Kansas