title: The Forgotten Battle: Overloon and the Maas Salient, 1944-45
author:  A. Korthals Altes 
description: Aided by the flooded Dutch countryside and the Maas (Meuse) River, the Germans at Overloon put up the stiffest resistance encountered by the Allies after the breakout from Normandy, and even managed to launch a surprise counter-attack. --Olga Federkevich<br /><br />Covers all aspects (British, German and Dutch) in all their drama, pity and courage. Well worth tracking down and well worth a visit to Overloon Museum where it is very easy to see the surrounding battlefield and understand the charcater of this struggle. --By C. T. Cradock<br /><br />Tells the extremely interesting story of the battles adjacent to Arnhem, Hell's Highway, Aachen, Huertgen, and the Ardennes. Even some of the best military history narratives available today would give you the false impression that after British XXX Corps cut a swath through to Nijmegen that the remaining Germans disappeared from the Netherlands. FORGOTTEN BATTLE completes this long overdue chapter of the battles along the Maas. The initial setting is September 1944. The German front has collapsed and the Allies are simultaneously pushing the Germans back in France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands. In an attempt to level a death blow to Nazi Germany, British Field Marshal Montgomery pushes his plan forward to seize a series of Dutch bridges and wheel into Germany. A combined paratroop and armored assault slices into Holland, only to be stopped at the Neder Rijn. In the meantime, the Germans rush to reinforce their bridgehead along the Maas and cut the Hell's Highway corridor. Meeting with only limited, and short-lived, success, the Germans pull back along the Maas and rebuild a cohesive front line blocking the Allied advance into Germany until 1945. FORGOTTEN BATTLE is very enjoyable reading. Personal accounts are interwoven with meticulous research. The military operations along the Maas have never really had an official name. "Overloon and the Maas Salient" fits perfectly. Indeed, the present day military museum at Overloon, a superb facility, is often overlooked by military history tourists. If you are a student of the period of time between the Arnhem operation and drive into the Reichswald, this book is for you. The only recommendation I have is that it is helpful to have a map of the Netherlands handy. There are map graphics scattered throughout the book, but sometimes the author sprinkles geographic names about so casually in the narrative that you might find yourself confused as to the location and direction of the action. --By Kevin R. Austra
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  ![001](mcma_9781101189177_msr_cvi_r1.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Table of Contents
  
  
  [Title Page](mcma_9781101189177_oeb_tp_r1.xhtml)
  
  
  [Copyright Page](mcma_9781101189177_oeb_cop_r1.xhtml)
  
  
  [Dedication](mcma_9781101189177_oeb_ded_r1.xhtml)
  
  
  [Introduction](mcma_9781101189177_oeb_itr_r1.xhtml)
  
  
    
  
  
  [CHAPTER 1 - Guam, July 1944: Amphibious Combat Against a Self-Destructive
  Enemy](mcma_9781101189177_oeb_c01_r1.xhtml)
  
  
  [CHAPTER 2 - Peleliu, September 1944: Amphibious Combat Against a Clever,
  ...](mcma_9781101189177_oeb_c02_r1.xhtml)
  
  
  [CHAPTER 3 - Aachen, 1944: Knocking ’Em All Down on a Politically Unrestrained
  ...](mcma_9781101189177_oeb_c03_r1.xhtml)
  
  
  [CHAPTER 4 - Scenes from the Northern Shoulder of the Bulge: Men Against Tanks
  ...](mcma_9781101189177_oeb_c04_r1.xhtml)
  
  
  [CHAPTER 5 - Operation Masher/White Wing: Air Mobility, Attrition, and the
  ...](mcma_9781101189177_oeb_c05_r1.xhtml)
  
  
  [CHAPTER 6 - Counterinsurgency from the Barrel of a Gun: The Marine Combined
  ...](mcma_978110118