Product Description

The Normandy Landings that took place on D-Day involved by far the largest invasion fleet ever known. The scale of the undertaking was simply awesome. What followed them was some of the most cunning and ferocious fighting of the war, at times as savage as anything seen on the Eastern Front. As casualties mounted, so too did the tensions between the principal commanders on both sides. Meanwhile, French civilians caught in the middle of these battlefields or under Allied bombing endured terrible suffering. Even the joys of Liberation had their darker side. The war in northern France marked not just a generation but the whole of the post-war world, profoundly influencing relations between America and Europe. Making use of overlooked and new material from over thirty archives in half a dozen countries, D-Day is the most vivid and well-researched account yet of the battle of Normandy. As with Stalingrad and Berlin, Antony Beevor's gripping narrative conveys the true experience of war.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #617 in Books
• Published on: 2009-05-28
• Released on: 2009-05-28
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 632 pages

Review
'As powerful and authoritative an account of the battle for Normandy as we are likely to get in this generation. Nobody knows better than Beevor how to translate the dry stuff of military history into human drama of the most vivid and moving kind' -- Max Hastings, Sunday Times --Max Hastings, Sunday Times

'A brilliantly co-ordinated and almost overwhelmingly upsetting history. Beevor is singularly expert at homing in on those telltale human details that reveal just what it would have been like to be in Normandy in the summer of 1944' -- Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday -- Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday

'No writer can surpass Beevor in making sense of a crowded battlefield and in balancing the explanation of tactical manoeuvres with poignant flashes of human detail' -- Christopher Silvester --Christopher Silvester, Daily Express

'Beevor's previous books led us to expect something special from D-Day, and he does not disappoint. Beevor has a particularly keen eye for the apercu or quotation that brings an experience - very often a gory one - to life' -- Andrew Roberts, Sunday Telegraph --Andrew Roberts, Sunday Telegraph

'Compulsive. Beevor tells it all with the soldier's eye for what matters on the ground as much as with the historian's for the broader understanding of events' -- Allan Mallinson, The Times
--Allan Mallinson, The Times

About the Author
Antony Beevor is the renowned author of Stalingrad, which won the Samuel Johnson Prize, the Wolfson Prize for History and the Hawthornden Prize for Literature, and Berlin, which received the first Longman-History Today TrusteesÂ’ Award. His books have sold nearly four million copies.

Customer Reviews

Far too simplistic
I was suspicious of the true historical value of this book after watching Antony Beevor commenting on the BBC during D Day commemorations. However, I took the plunge and ought the book as a holiday read. There is nothing of substance in the book and the text is littered with comments which originate from the mouths of 'Officers Mess Bores' and armchair experts and as such have little worth. The author tells us no more about D Day and the subsequent battle for Normandy than we already know. Beevor focuses on the failings on Monty which is not new. However, his constant referral to these failings when referring to the British influence on the battle became rather annoying. If you want a true history of the events, look elsewhere.

Not a particularly good book on the subject
I would like to warn others against this book. The main ideas and arguments it puts forward have already been dealt with far more competently by other authors. It also claims to be based on extensive new research but it is not. If you have already read widely on the subject of the Normandy landings and the campaign that followed then it may just be worth reading this book so that you can discuss its shortcomings honestly if required to do so.
If you are new or relatively new to this subject area then I would strongly recommend you read the following authors before you read Mr Beevors book as their work is far superior-
Max Hastings - Overlord
Carlo D'este - Decision in Normandy
Robert J Kershaw - D-Day
If you really want to go into the detail of German combat readiness and performance in this theatre- in a properly researched book - then I would also recommend-
Niklas Zetterling Normandy 1944.

Beevor's D Day, a job half done
We all agree that Antony Beevor is a fine popular historian; you feel you are leaning over the Colonel's shoulder, maps spread out amid the confusion of battle. But D Day is more than a battle in France, it was an immense task conceived, organised and implemented then very hard fighting won. If you are interested in the Normandy campaign he is up to the task, but so too are a plethora of authors. What can Beevor add, could he link the pre 6th June preparation in equal measure to the fighting and present a complete D Day in one book? I wish he had given it a go.

Previous - serious - reviews suggest he has written a good but not an outstanding book. Given the confusion and complexity no one will ever write a definitive account. Of course narrative and academic historians will slog it out but for me it was a good "macro" account that added to the other books I have read. It is still the case D Day tends to be marginalised, gathering overwhelming forces in Southern England, a cross channel dash, some fighting against second tier troops, the allied generals -with "real time" Enigma intelligence - breaking out and processing to Germany. Allied air domination made it a turkey shoot. It was not like that and Bevoor details just how bloody the post invasion campaign was. Could the landing have been repelled on the beaches, or the breakout prevented? Disaster was real possibility, massive force never guaranteed success (ask the Romans). Beevor gave no sense of just how great the risks were.

D Day is a generic term for a staggeringly complex event. The harder you work, the luckier you get might be the real lesson. It demands an outstanding writer to present it to the general reader. To put the first soldier on French soil required a level of intelligence, audacity and imagination arguably without equal in war. How was the political will formed and the planning put in place? They did it with little more than pencils and card index boxes. Who were the people that organised the invasion, not bickering Generals but those in Nissen huts in Dorset? Many would have seen war in the Western Front in 1914-18 well aware of the disastrous events at Gallipoli and Dieppe. The 6th June is incomprehensible to those that did not see it - some 175,000 men, 1,500 tanks, 3,000 artillery pieces and 10,000 vehicles crossed the channel. This required nearly 7,000 vessels and 11,590 aircraft. Then the technological aspects, the Mulberry harbours, the fuel line PLUT0 and the beach storming equipment. How did they create a command structure for American, British, Canadian -Free French and Poles - operating in combined operations in sea, air, beach and paratroop landings? And the deception that convinced the Germans that Normandy was a feint for the Pas de Calais. Behind every front line soldier were at least a dozen in uniform and even more civilians. Who has told their story?

Had Beevor called his book the Battle for Normandy he would deserve full credit. But the prefix D Day - which we know sells books - begs a fuller account and here he has missed the target. What is on the "label" is not what is in the "can". Max Hastings the consensus suggests - has told it better while there are many competent, well-illustrated books written over the same ground. D Day - the whole story - is incredibly inspiring. The men that made D Day have a lot to teach us, understanding what they did is how we honour them. The objective was glorious, a colossal sacrifice to rid us of fascism. It seems Bevoor is stuck in a rut, although one he does well. This book is a disappointment, is it cashing in on his reputation and the 65th anniversary?