Villers-Bocage Through the Lens

by Daniel Taylor

An analysis of the tank battle that took place at Villers-Bocage in 1944, when the 7th Armoured Division, or "Desert Rats", took on German panzers and were heavily defeated. The text bases its arguments on photographs taken in the aftermath and the testimony of German tank ace Michael Wittmann.

Genres: History

88 pages, Hardcover

First published February 15, 1999

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Daniel Taylor is a British journalist and author. He was the chief football writer for The Guardian and The Observer from 2012 to 2019, having joined the newspaper in 2000; in October 2019, he joined The Athletic. In March 2017 he won news reporter of the year and sports journalist of the year at The Press Awards for his series of stories about the United Kingdom football sexual abuse scandal.

Reviews

[Carl · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best works, if not the authoritative source, produced on the day long battle for Villers-Bocage. Taylor provides a narrative of the fighting backed by a wealth of British and German photos, maps, and illustrations. He deconstructs the myths surrounding the fighting of just a tank brawl or a one-Tiger attack, and brings to light the often forgotten fighting later in the day and the next. There are some minor points to take with some of the information provided, which Taylor has also publically re-reviewed but they are quibbles compared to the overall quality of the work.