PATTON, MONTGOMERY, ROMMEL; MASTERS OF WAR

It's been a number of years since I read a Patton book, so I'm not sure if there was a lot of new information in this one, or I was just reminded of things I'd forgotten. It would have been helpful if Brighton would have included foot/endnotes. His bibliography seems extensive, but I have no idea what information came from where. Doing some web searches on some passages leads me to believe he relied heavily on D'Este's book for the Patton material. As well he should.Brighton's writing moves briskly, and even at 400 pages, the book was a quick read. Obviously, when writing a triple biography there is not much depth provided. The purpose of the book was to explain the relationships between the three men and was not really a character study, but by doing this much of the interesting material is overlooked. For example, he mentions a few times where Patton stopped to see ancient military ruins, but doesn't give us much information as to why he did this and Monty and Rommel did not. Unless you know about Patton already this behavior may be lost on you.Of the three, Brighton has the lowest opinion of Monty, and perhaps Ike. He certainly doesn't whitewash Patton's mistakes, or Rommel's, but is of the mind that they were the better commanders and that their personality quirks were less disruptive to their respective war efforts. Patton may have slapped two soldiers, but that was a PR problem. Monty's ongoing attempt to usurp Ike's command role affected the war effort until Ike finally put an end to it. Rommel is given the benefit of the doubt about the July 20 attempt on Hitler and there seems to be good evidence that he deserves it. I know little of Rommel, so I have to trust Brighton.There are few maps, and the ones there are don't do much good, but the book is much more about the interactions of the men than detailed campaign histories. There are some good myth-busting passages, and it's obvious that some of the animosity in the Patton-Monty legend is a bit overblown, though certainly based on fact. All in all, a good book which held my interest, but if you're looking for an intro for any of these three men, don't start here. This is good material after you have a base of knowledge.