An authoritative and fresh new study of Allied tanks' role in
smashing the walls of Fortress Europe on D-Day.
Allied success in invading Fortress Europe (the area of Continental
Europe occupied by Nazi Germany) depended on getting armor onto the
beaches as fast as possible. This book explains how the Allies developed
the specialist tanks it needed, their qualities, deployment, and
numbers, and how they performed on the two crucial days when France was
invaded, firstly in Normandy and then in Provence.
The focus of this volume will be on the specialized tanks developed for
the Operation Neptune amphibious landings including the Duplex Drive
amphibious Sherman tanks used on both the US and British/Canadian
beaches. It also covers the specialized engineer tanks called "Armoured
Funnies" of the British 79th Armoured Division and addresses the popular
myth that US Army refusal to employ the Armoured Funnies was a principal
cause for the high casualties at Omaha Beach. There is also coverage of
Operation Overlord's "Forgotten D-Day", the amphibious landings of
Operation Dragoon. This book addresses why there were so few Panzers
opposing the landings from the German perspective as well as detailing
the extent of German tank/assault gun activity on D-Day.