Roman Jarymowycz

I could stomach, barely, the suggestion that cavalry should live. I could stomach the attacks on gunners, and in fact on anyone who questioned a straight manoeuvrist theory of war. But when Jarymowycz suggested that the Rhine could have been crossed in 1944 by the Americans if only they had more armoured divisions - when it was logistics that stopped to American army even with less armoured divisions, then I realized that our good Colonel J. wrote a book based solely on what he wanted to think, not what the evidence suggested. I quit reading at page 74. I have better things to do with my time than read fiction dressed as serious history.… (mais)

A long-serving officer of the Canadian army, Jarymowycz swings a big ax in terms of assessing the successes and failures of allied mechanized warfare in the wake of the Normandy invasion vis-a-vis the German and Soviet experiences. To cut to the chase, Jarymowycz sees the use of armor in pursuit as the lineal descendent of heavy cavalry as the arm of decision and betrays some dismay over the failure of horsemen to realize that cavalry is a state of mind, not a mode of transportation, and to embrace the tank during the formative period between the world wars. This leads to the evisceration of Montgomery's performance in Northwest Europe over and above anything I've seen from an American military history, and is somewhat jaw-dropping in impact. Then again, Normandy represents the apogee of the Canadian experience in modern warfare and one gathers that the author rues the failure to garner more of the laurels of victory when the oppertunity was there to make a reputation. Jarymowycz also, by way of comparison with the perceived incomprehension of the Allied commanders with the strategic offensive in World War II, offers the clearest explanation I've yet seen of the Soviet achievement in war. From my other reading I do believe that Jarymowycz is rather too harsh with Monty, Bradley, and the like, but any student of World War II military history will get something out of this study.… (mais)