Admirers of Montgomery claim Caen as a major victory, while his denigrators write it off as a pointless battle of attrition at a time when the Allies, after landing successfully in Normandy, should have been forging ahead as fast as Patten did (or Rommel in 1940). Monty was good at a set-piece battle and a master of defensive fighting, but on the offensive he was as deliberate as his mentors in 1914-18. Caen was a key area, and when the battle for it ended after two months of bitter fighting and continuous bombardment, the historic town was mostly in ruins and at least 10,000 French civilians had died. Alexander McKee's account is over 30 years old but reads well, though the printing - apparently by the photo-lithographic method - is rather blurry and hard on the eye.