James Holland: The War in the West
James Holland: The War in the West

JAMES HOLLAND, WAR IN THE WEST, AND SOURCES 

James Holland fully appreciates the last decades’ growing accessibility of the sources and interviewing still-alive veterans of the War. While writing his trilogy, the author has performed active travel to visit Germany, Austria, Norway, France, New Zealand, Italy, the United States, Australia, Canada, Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, and even India and SAR. It’s a matter of fact, that Holland obtained the majority of his studies back home in England. Whereas the after-WW2 world was poor in travel capabilities with common diplomatic issues, a modern historian is free of will to travel all over the globe to have access to many countries, even on the periphery of the great battles.

The second cornerstone deals with the accessibility of the number of national and private archives, as some of them were restricted to the public during the decades of the Cold War. In the present day, James Holland can easily obtain full admittance to the tones of the captured archives, first-hand records of the diplomatic correspondence, and official orders. The modern process of globalization and international outspokenness reveals the hidden secrets of World War Two, such as Stalin’s purges and the Bletchley Park operations (once left out Churchill’s notorious memoirs).

James Holland pays tribute to the enormous number of books, written both first-hand by participants and victims and historians on the other hand, and published within the past 70 years. The modern evolution of digital media provides a modern historian with a means of access to thousands of memoirs and academic studies without leaving home. A significant proportion of the books initially written in German, Italian, French, Russian, etc. are now available in English editions. The Digital era grants us thousands of hours of documentary footage and plenty of photos now have been digitalized and restored within the last two decades.

James Holland emphasizes the value of digital photos within the process of operating with sources. While half a century ago a historian had to use a pencil to take an extreme amount of notes with no ability to take documents out, his modern follower can take as many digital photos as he needs, copying the original. The calm academic atmosphere of the sanctum sanctorum workroom gives additional historical accuracy by getting deeper into every particular document.

James Holland, War in the West and sources

 

PERSONAL ACCOUNTS AND FACTS

James Holland underlines the fact that still living veterans and civilian witnesses of WW2 were in the late 80s or 90s already during his work on the “The War in the West” trilogy. Modern military historiography has made a notable step forward within the last thirty years, shifting focus from the strategic reviews of the battles to the personal accounts and emotions of the soldiers, politicians, and civilians. The majority of this recollection has made its way over the decades of nightmares and the predominance of emotions over reality. “The War in the West 1939-1941. Germany’s ascendant” academically unites personal accounts with the actual documented facts to make them complement. James Holland admits personal drama was a driving force for him to travel the world, spend months within the archives and libraries, collect testimonials, and write books on the Second World War.

Live testimonials of the people, taken from the post-war memoirs or the interviews give a different perspective on the cruelest and most destructive conflict in our history. Bare figures and graphics do not give us an understanding of what was happening in the minds of the soldiers and field commanders. James Hollands in this respect uses his academic approach round-trip. The author fills the gap as the memory cannot be considered a truly authoritative source of factual evidence, varying from one narrator to another.

Emotional testimonials of the Allied veterans, who used to fight with the German Tiger tank, reveal an important account of how this massive weapon influenced the battlefield. Vice Versa the German tankmen tell stump speech full of nostalgia to describe the feeling of fighting for their motherland alongside their fellow soldiers within the Tiger moving fortress. Therewith, James Holland reveals the technical specifications of this machine expertly. The Tiger was a real mess in usage and repair. Wehrmacht had to use the railway, changing tracks to perform logistic transportation of the tanks to the battlefields. It was greedy for fuel, which had become a great shortcoming after 1942. Tiger was almost useless to use within the cities.

 

PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS

Paying significant academic attention to the archives, published and unpublished memoirs, and dozens of interviews, James Holland has his “favorites”. They are people, from soldiers to generals, Germans and British, French, and Italians, personal accounts of which are chosen to take on the job of the first-hand narrator. This approach is not something extraordinary in the military history of World War Two, as some prominent studies quote some characters more often than others. James Holland even puts these personalities in the very beginning of his “The War in the West” book, with the “LIST OF PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS FEATURED” title.

While examining the process of making strategic decisions within the Third Reich, the author frequently gets us acquainted with the thoughts of Walter Warlimont, taken from his “Inside Hitler’s Headquarters” after-war memoirs. Legendary memoirs of Winston Churchill are also a common source for the book. Erich Topp, a German submarine boatman, first officer, and then a captain himself, dips us into the world of the ‘’Wolf packs’’. Henry Stimson, American Secretary of War introduced backdoor processes before the United States joined the War in 1941. Edwards Spears, a member of the British Parliament and a personal representative of Churchill within a British-French ally.  Ernie Pyle, American journalist and war correspondent. Galeazzo Ciano brings the German-Italian Axis into the open.

LIST OF PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS FEATURED

 

OPERATIONAL APPROACH AND LOGISTICS OF THE WAR 

James Holland’s “The War in the West” book appears to be a unique historical study in many respects. The history of World War Two and the first two years of the War, in particular, is narrated without a sophisticated dive into strategic overlooks. The book devotes its first pages to the maps and schemes of the campaigns and operations of the 1939-1941 period, rather for illustrative purposes than to have a close deal with. Modern military historiography generally deals with three levels of understanding: strategic, tactical, and operational. James Holland’s trilogy is on the point of the last layer, still rare and revolutionary even after 70 years and dozens of thousands of books devoted to WW2.

The strategic level gives us the big picture of the War, emphasizing the key goals of the opposite sides. Military history employs the tactical layer to get closer to the battlefields and the front line, troop movement, wins and defeats, defense and attack, casualties, and trophies. The operational level of understanding of military history explains how the previous two layers were possible. In other words, what actions and processes were necessary to perform combat between Troops A and Troops B in this particular place, considering the war economy, equipment, and arming logistics? In what way one battle or another were sustained for a desired period?

Operational approach and logistics of War

Former Waffen-SS soldiers praised the high level of equipment and ammunition, still without concern about what was the price and how other military units had been limited with the same “instruments of war”. What was the working day for foreign prisoners of war to supply one division to break through the enemy line in one particular episode of the war? American and British veterans recall a non-stop supply even within the most exhausting battles. Even if one day they had to say goodbye to the Sherman or the Hurricane, the day after witnessing a supply of a new moving fortress without any concerns of how was it possible to deliver a multi-tone machine to France or Germany.

While getting deeper into this complex layer of military history, we figure out not only the peculiarities of the railway logistics, but detail the quality of ammunition and military equipment, progressive engineering, and the socio-cultural reality of the people, who participated in WW2. James Holland takes his reader into the premises of the military warehouses to reveal the uniforms, used to perform the war. What was the real percentage of the WW1 equipment still in use in 1939-1940? The level of the motorization of each army on the map of Europe and the correlation between the volume of civil and military machines. A variety of repair components to maintain more than 1000 types of trucks.

Logistics. Opearitional approach to the World War Two

 

THE REVISIONISM OF THE WAR ‘MYTHS’ 

James Holland’s academic works are generally characterized as revisionist history, without a negative meaning commonly associated with Holocaust deniers and other falsifiers of history. In broader terms, historical revisionism implies a reconsideration of the long-stand myths and stereotypes, which generally are not supplied with the facts. Even 70 years after World War Two and thousands of studies on all aspects, modern historiography still preserves some concepts and does not hold criticism.  The majority of these myths have not been revised since the 1940s and the first wave of research.

Revisionism of the war “myths”

James Holland points out several basic historical myths and ways of thinking about WW2, which do not stand with critical evaluation using solid facts. These concepts generally deal with the pre-war period and the 1939-1941 years of war.

  1. At the beginning of the Second World War, the German army was the most modern, equipped in the best way, and trained to have full supremacy.
  2. German Blitzkrieg in Poland, Norway, France, and the Balkans was a thoroughly planned and performed act of strategic and tactical supremacy over the opposite block of countries.
  3. After a painful defeat in France, a retreat from Dunkirk, and a loss of equipment and a fighting spirit, the British army was surrounded by the enemies as a single stand against a new global order in Europe, waiting for the growing assistance of the USA and its participation in the War.
  4. An alliance between the German Reich and fascist Italy, tightened with the Berlin-Rome Steel Pact, was an example of ideological, military, and political cooperation. And the main reason for its failure was the superior forces of the Allies.

REconsideration of the myths of the WW2

James Holland does not constantly emphasize these conventional concepts in an attempt to disprove the myths. As a narrative alternative, he implies contrasts storytelling with an emphasis on factual information. For example, a significant part of the book is devoted to the abyss between a propaganda fantasy and reality, while deepening into the Axis ally between Germany and Italy. The author uses letters, memoirs, testimonies of the common civilians, and facts on the arming infrastructure of Italy to reflect a detailed picture of the life and war behind the closed doors of the Axis. Figures of the British war manufacturing, which had surpassed the German ones already in 1940, and the actual correlation between the whole fleet and the number of vessels that sank. Lack of agreement within the Blitzkrieg, conflicts between the high officers, and tactical fortune of the talented warlords.

 

SOME PROFOUND IDEAS ON WWII

At the time of 1919, Poland obtained its independence first since the 18th century and its long-stand ‘division’ between Austria, Germany, and Russia. Millions of people of different nations and languages were now a part of Poland, a state made agreed upon after the Great War.

Steel Pact between the German Reich and Italy signed on May 22, 1939, had a more ideological impact on the Germans and influenced the poor within Italy.

On the Threshold of the Second World War Britain and France considered the communist Soviet Union even as a more dangerous enemy than Germany. Totalitarian regime, mass executions, Stalin’s purges just two years before. British Empire as a monarchy could not stand the assassination of the Russian royal family. Vyacheslav Molotov, a Minister of Foreign Affairs appointed in May 1939 had been an active participant and a perpetrator of the crimes.

In 1939 70% of German homes had a radio receiver with radio repeaters in most public places such as streets, shops, theatres, barbershops, and public transport. A common German citizen was under constant ideological pressure with the propaganda details of the Poland campaign. The Germans considered the neighbor as an aggressor who violated the rights of the German-speaking people and violated a border with acts of sabotage and violence.

Even though the fascist government had controlled Italy since 1922, the country was still a monarchy. Victor Emmanuel and war leaders had enough power to shift the political rulers of the state. This scenario was beyond reality in Germany.

Although only twenty years had passed since the end of the Great War (World War One), at the time of 1939 British expeditionary forces had a lack of real combat experience. The previous most difficult challenge was to deal with some rebellions on the periphery of the Empire.

Whether German propaganda did its best to soften the fact of the German-Soviet Non-Aggression Treaty to their people, Italy was extremely confused. Germany had signed a treaty with the ideological enemy of both Steel Pact allies, a country that had been distributing communism over Europe.

The decision of Italy to enter the war in 1940 should be considered a combination of factors. A state had to preserve self-importance within the Axis at a time when Hitler had successfully invaded Western Europe. Another thing, Mussolini had a dream to expand a new version of the Roman empire and rule northern Africa employing British and French colonies.

Some profound ideas on the WW2

 

A FICTIONAL STYLE OF A NON-FICTION STUDY. A MASTER OF INSERTED HISTORY BY JAMES HOLLAND

James Holland emphasizes that his goal was wider than just writing another boring survey, looking over the figures on divisions in the West. The author considers his The War in the West trilogy as an accessible narration to reach a wide range of readers, who will enjoy the process and history. Each book and the “German Ascendant” in particular is aimed to unite the years of Holland’s studies and the up-to-date historical way of thinking. James Holland is a co-producer of television documentaries and an author of several historical monographs on WW2. He is also famous for his fictional books, dealing with the greatest conflict in human history as a background. The author successfully manages to tell the story excitingly to intrigue us with the events. He constantly combines his principal characters and changes the focus of attention between the opposite sides, between ranks and regalias. Holland’s narration reminds me of fiction, especially while quoting memoirs and testimonies. At the same time. The author can fill each chapter with the elements of the inserted stories, shifting focus and adding historical facts without interrupting the wholeness of the idea-driven narration.

Fictional style of a non-fictional study. A mastery of inserted history by James Holland