LAST TIME EUROPE WASN'T READY TO FIGHT: 3/8: Brothers in Arms: One Legendary Tank Regiment’s Bloody War from D-Day to VE-Day, by James Holland
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 3 March 2025
⏱️ 13 minutes
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Summary
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08YS123SZ/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i0
In the annals of World War II, certain groups of soldiers stand out, and among the most notable were the Sherwood Rangers. Originally a cavalry unit in the last days of horses in combat, whose officers were landed gentry leading men who largely worked for them, they were switched to the “mechanized cavalry” of tanks in 1942. Winning acclaim in the North African campaign, the Sherwood Rangers then spearheaded one of the D-Day landings in Normandy on June 6, 1944; led the way across France; were the first British troops to cross into Germany, and contributed mightily to Germany’s surrender in May 1945.
Inspired by Stephen Ambrose’s Band of Brothers, the acclaimed WWII historian James Holland memorably profiles an extraordinary group of citizen soldiers constantly in harm’s way. Their casualties were horrific, but their ranks immediately refilled. Informed by never-before-seen documents, letters, photographs, and other artifacts from Sherwood Rangers’ families—an ongoing fraternity—and by his own deep knowledge of the war, Holland offers a uniquely intimate portrait of the war at ground level, introducing heretofore unknowns such as the Commanding Officer Stanley Christopherson, the squadron commander John Semken, Sergeant George Dring, and other memorable characters who helped the regiment become the single unit with the most battle honors of any ever in the British army. He weaves the Sherwood Rangers’ exploits into the larger narrative and strategy of the war, and also brings fresh analysis to the tactics used.
Following the Sherwood Rangers’ brutal journey over the dramatic eleven months between D-Day and V-E Day, Holland presents a vivid and original perspective on the endgame of WWII in Europe.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is CBSI in the world. I'm John Batchel with the historian James Holland. His new book is Brothers in Arms. One legendary tank regiment's bloody war from D-Day to V-E-Day. We've got them on shore. We've got them with a mission now. And their mission is the high ground, as James is going to introduce us to a big picture of why watching the Sherwood |
| 0:26.4 | Rangers yeomanry and their engagement, their gunfight, is part of the largest story of the |
| 0:32.7 | Allied success from 6 June until the capture of Paris and then all across France and Belgium. James, it's always |
| 0:40.1 | been part of the story that Khan, the big city, was supposed to be captured within first hours or |
| 0:47.5 | first days by Montgomery's Army Corps, and that the failure to capture Khan for many weeks was a weakness in the Allied |
| 0:57.3 | plan. That was always the reporting back home. Not accurate, and you're going to illustrate |
| 1:04.6 | in your, you illustrate in your story, the facts of the Sherwood Rangers and also all of the British and Canadian and Scottish |
| 1:15.3 | divisions locking horns with the very best the Germans had. You mentioned the 12 SS Pancers, |
| 1:22.0 | who have already committed war crimes by executing Canadians, but also arriving over the next days, the Penser Lear |
| 1:30.4 | Division headed by General Lieutenant Fritz Bayerlin. What is the big picture of why it's |
| 1:38.5 | important to pay attention to 0.103 and the battle over Fontenay? Yeah, well, so, so, you know, normally just sticks out on a limb in north, north, west France. |
| 1:49.0 | And con is the hinge because it's a key nodal point. |
| 1:53.0 | It's got rivers going through it. It's got a railway line. It's got main roads and all the rest of it. |
| 1:57.0 | And when you, from con, you can sweep eastwards up towards Paris, |
| 2:01.1 | up towards Belgium, cross eastwards to the German border and so on. So obviously the French, |
| 2:07.2 | from the German point of view, as they're moving their mobile units, their Panzer units, |
| 2:12.6 | their armored units, up into the into the battlefront, con is the kind of sort of first port of call. That's your kind of |
| 2:19.1 | blocking position. And it's from there that the Germans are intending to knock the Allies back |
| 2:24.0 | into the sea. And so there is this huge concentration that emerges during the course of June of some |
| 2:30.0 | seven of the 10 Panzer divisions that the Germans have in the West, all concentrating around |
| 2:35.5 | Korn and straight into the kind of, you know, the arms of the British and the Canadians. |
| 2:40.2 | And the Sherwood Rangers, part of the Vombard Brigade, are on the kind of sort of sort of the |
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