No Triumphant Procession: The Forgotten Battles of April 1945

by John Russell, R. de Normann

Traces the progress made by the British Second Army as they fought against the German Second Naval Infantry Division in the closing stages of World War II. The book provides a thorough account of skirmishes which have been largely ignored by war historians, although they took place on German soil.

Genres: History, World War II

256 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 1994

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author with this name in the Goodreads database. This profile contains books by more than one author with this name.

Reviews

[carl theaker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the stories of the niche battles, the ones that
are rarely, if at all, covered by the many books and movies
about World War Two.

'No Triumphant Procession' delves into the British 2nd
Army crossing the Aller River in Northern Germany with
the war all but over in April 1945.

In the official history, General Montgomery covers this
battle in 2 sentences, author John Russell manages about
250 pages of detailed events.

You'll have to become accustomed to one of the rarest
phrases of the war: 'German Marines'. Additionally, while
the word 'Marines' may conjure up images of battle hardened,
elite troops hitting the beach, these Germans are anything
but that.

Although they are inspired, they are a varied collection
of U-boat crews and other Navy personnel scraped together
with little infantry training for a final defense of the
Reich.

Russell covers the various stages of this battle in great
detail from the British side. If fact you could take this
book and practically walk through each event and point
to the bridge or house that was taken.

What makes this battle interesting is how did this
small group of under-equipped, ill-trained, supply starved
'Marines' stop, or at least pause, the advance of the
British, who possessed absolute air power, hundreds if
not thousands to one superiority in vehicles and endless
supplies?

At times the story gets a bit bogged down with paragraphs
becoming a glut of Unit numbers, so reading can become
a bit dry.

Perhaps it's in contrast to the detail of the British
motivations, but there's not a lot from the German
perspective beyond the technical details of what unit was
where when. I would have liked more insight into the
workings of the German tactics and evaluation of the
situation.

Spicing things up, Russell notes whenever German airstrikes
take place, particularly when the revolutionary jets are
involved. Although they had little effect on the battle, I
found them to be great little stories.


There are 16 pages of relevant photos and 18 maps.

[Singleton Mosby · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book tells the story of the battles for the Weser and Aller river on the Northern German plains (to the south-east of Bremen) in April 1945. The last fresh German division, 2nd Marines, was tasked to defend both these rivers and together with the remains of the 12th SS Hitlerjugend fought a ferocious battle. A good book about an episode which is often overlooked as most book just stop at the allied crossing of the Rhine and skip onwards towards the Elbe.

Contrary to what the title and short description on most sites suggests this book does not tell the story of the entire campaign from the Rhine to the Elbe but only a small part of it.
The main focal point of the book is the battle for Rethem and its defence by the 2nd Marine division and some various Flak units. Due to this small scale it is very detailed on these particular actions and makes for a great read.