D-Day, June 6, 1944, and the 76 days of bitter fighting in Normandy that
followed the Allied landing, have become the defining episode of World
War II in the west - the object of books, films, television series, and
documentaries. Yet as familiar as it is, as James Holland makes clear in
his definitive history, many parts of the OVERLORD campaign, as it was
known, are still shrouded in myth and assumed knowledge.
Drawing freshly on widespread archives and on the testimonies of
eye-witnesses, Holland relates the extraordinary planning that made
Allied victory in France possible; indeed, the story of how hundreds of
thousands of men, and mountains of materiel, were transported across the
English Channel, is as dramatic a human achievement as any battlefield
exploit. The brutal landings on the five beaches and subsequent battles
across the plains and through the lanes and hedgerows of Normandy - a
campaign that, in terms of daily casualties, was worse than any in World
War I - come vividly to life in conferences where the strategic
decisions of Eisenhower, Rommel, Montgomery, and other commanders were
made, and through the memories of paratrooper Lieutenant Dick Winters of
Easy Company, British corporal and tanker Reg Spittles, Thunderbolt
pilot Archie Maltbie, German ordnance officer Hans Heinze, French
resistance leader Robert Leblanc, and many others.
For both sides, the challenges were enormous. The Allies confronted a
disciplined German army stretched to its limit, which nonetheless caused
tactics to be adjusted on the fly. Ultimately ingenuity, determination,
and immense materiel strength - delivered with operational brilliance -
made the difference. A stirring narrative by a pre-eminent historian,
Normandy '44 offers important new perspective on one of history's most
dramatic military engagements and is an invaluable addition to the
literature of war.
