Max Hastings's "exceptional" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review)
account of the famous World War II D-Day landings "[will] stand with
that of the best journalists and writers who witnessed it" (The New
York Times Book Review).
On June 6, 1944, the American and British armies staged the greatest
amphibious landing in history--called Operation Overlord--the battle for
the liberation of Europe. Despite the Allies' absolute command of sea
and air and vast firepower, it took ten weeks of fierce fighting for
them to overpower the tenacious, superbly skilled German army. Forty
years later, British war correspondent and military historian Max
Hastings shares a dense, dramatic portrait of the Normandy invasion that
overturns the traditional legends.
First published in 1984, Overlord "will shock those who regard the
invasion of Normandy and the subsequent battles as triumphs of American,
British, and Canadian military heroism" (The New York Times). Instead,
Hastings provides a brilliant, controversial perspective on the
devastating battles, based on the eyewitness accounts of survivors from
both sides, plus a wealth of previously untapped sources and documents.
"A masterly book, rich in insight, shrewd and weighty in judgement...Max
Hastings stands in the first rank of writers on modern war" (Financial
Times).
