'THE Romantic Rhine', that much-loved phrase of travel writers, proved to be The Bloody Rhine for the many thousands of Allied troops who fought and died for mastery of the great river in 1944-45 to deliver the final killing blow to the exposed heart of Hitler's Reich.

In September 1944, Field Marshal Montgomery predicted his armies would 'bounce the Rhine'. But over the next eight months nearly 20 major attempts would be made to breach the 'Fatherland'.

York military author Charles Whiting pulls no punches in this account of the infighting that went on during this period, when it often appeared that Britain and her U.S. partner were not on the same side. Strategic consideration took second place to the glory-seekers among the top brass. The book, the ninth title by Whiting in Spellmount's ten-volume Siegfried Line series, has all the graphic readability of its predecessors.

For the effort and self-sacrifice of those thousands of British, American and Canadians who died in their efforts to cross the Rhine in the last great battle of the Second World War there is no single monument along its whole length... no trace of their passing.

Updated: 08:52 Wednesday, April 02, 2003