D-Day: The Battle for Normandy [Hardcover]

Antony Beevor (Author)

Book Description

Release date: October 13, 2009

The #1 internationally bestselling history of D-Day is now enhanced with rare video footage from the NBC News Archives for the ultimate narrative of the battle for Normandy.

The definitive account of the Normandy invasion by the bestselling author of Stalingrad and The Fall of Berlin 1945

From critically acclaimed world historian, Antony Beevor, this is the first major account in more than twenty years to cover the whole invasion from June 6, 1944, right up to the liberation of Paris on August 25. It is the first book to describe not only the experiences of the American, British, Canadian, and German soldiers, but also the terrible suffering of the French caught up in the fighting. More French civilians were killed by Allied bombing and shelling than British civilians were by the Luftwaffe.

The Allied fleet attempted by far the largest amphibious assault ever, and what followed was a battle as savage as anything seen on the Eastern Front. Casualties mounted on both sides, as did the tensions between the principal commanders. Even the joys of liberation had their darker side. The war in northern France marked not just a generation, but the whole of the postwar world, profoundly influencing relations between America and Europe. Beevor draws upon his research in more than thirty archives in six countries, going back to original accounts, interviews conducted by combat historians just after the action, and many diaries and letters donated to museums and archives in recent years.

D-Day will surely be hailed as the consummate account of the Normandy invasion and the ferocious offensive that led to the liberation of Paris.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Beevor has established a solid reputation as a chronicler of WWII's great eastern front battles: Stalingrad and Berlin. In addressing D-Day, he faces much wider competition with historians like Stephen Ambrose and Max Hastings, who also use his method of integrating personal experiences, tactical engagements, operational intentions and strategic plans. Beevor combines extensive archival research with a remarkable sense of the telling anecdote: he quotes, for example, an officer's description of the bloody mass of arms and legs and heads, [and] cremated corpses created by artillery fire as the Germans tried to escape the Allied breakout. He is sharply critical of senior commanders on both sides: Bernard Montgomery's conceit; Adolf Hitler's self-delusion; Dwight Eisenhower's mediocrity. His heroes are the men who took the invasion ashore and carried it forward into Normandy in the teeth of a German defense whose skill and determination deserved a better cause. The result was a battle of attrition: a bloody slog that tested British and American fighting power to the limit—but not beyond. Beevor says that it wasn't Allied forces' material superiority but their successful use of combined arms and their high learning curve that were decisive in a victory that shaped postwar Europe. Maps, illus. (Oct. 13)
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Review

As near as possible to experiencing what it was like to be there... It is almost impossible for a reader not to get caught up in the excitement -- Giles Foden Guardian 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 Daily Express --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 608 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult (October 13, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670021199
• ISBN-13: 978-0670021192
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (141 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #98,178 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

A regular in the 11th Hussars, Antony Beevor served in Germany and England. He has had a number of books published and his book Stalingrad was awarded the Samuel Johnson Prize, the Wolfson History Prize and the Hawthornden Prize. Among the many prestigious posts he holds, he is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

125 of 131 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Well done look at famed invasion by a great military historian August 18, 2009

By G. Nasuti

Format:Hardcover

Some may simply ignore this book, yet another look at the Normandy invasion that has been seemingly done to death. But what makes it good is that it was researched and written by well-known historian Antony Beevor, author of 'Stalingrad.' Beevor does an incredible job of interweaving the stories of soldiers involved in the invasion along with the decisions made at the top. He finds a good deal of fault with his own countrymen, namely General Montgomery, who he finds reacted much too slowly to German counterattacks and even hints that the Brits may have been suffering from a bit of war exhaustion. Like Cornelius Ryans' classic 'The Longest Day,' Beevor explores the actions and reactions of each side, including the Brits, Americans, Germans, and the French. There was something of a controversy when the book was released in Britain after Beevor asserted that the bombing of Caen by the Brits before D-Day was "very close to a war crime." Many felt Beevor made the statement to help sell books. I don't think that was the case because I don't believe Dr. Beevor will have trouble selling this book, nor do I feel this statement is hardly controversial. Many of the bombings during the war could come close to being considered war crimes, especially when civilians were made to suffer, but each side was guilty of this. Also, with hindsight, this is an easy statement to make. The Brits did have a rough time taking Caen after German panzer reinforcements reached the town and held it against Montgomery's forces. I also enjoyed a section where Beevor discussed the highly controversial replacement system of the American army during the war. Many green soldiers were sent to the front lines simply as "bodies" to fill a space left by a dead or wounded GI. Beevor claims that the word "replacements" was done away with later in the campaign by the brass and changed to "reinforcements." That was news to me. I have spoken with many American veterans of the war that only ever referred to the "replacement" system, and none of them ever had anything good to say about it. His chapter on the fighting in the bocage is also well written and interesting.

The book does not reveal much new information or break any new ground, but the writing is excellent and the maps are very well done. Since I had an uncorrected proof of the book, I do not know what photographs will appear in it, but I suspect there won't be many that the public has not already seen. Beevor did a fantastic job of breaking the action up by chapter in sequential order as the invasion and later fighting in Normandy unfolded. I wish he had spent a little more time on the battles themselves, such as the battle at Pointe-du-Hoc or for the port city of Cherbourg, but overall this is a small complaint. I feel Beevor also did a commendable job of discussing the confusion that seemed to wrack the German High Command during the campaign, mostly due to Hitler, as well as the bravery and toughness of the Allied soldiers and their German counterparts. I recommend this book to those who enjoy military history and the Second World War.

79 of 84 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Beevor winner August 27, 2009

By Teemacs

Format:Hardcover

There have been many books written about D-Day, starting with Cornelius Ryan's "The Longest Day", and one (this one anyway) wondered whether there would be anything new to say about the momentous events of 6 June 1944. In short, the answer is no. Mr. Beevor relates all the familiar stories of the build-up and the great stories of D-Day - Pegasus Bridge, the Merville Battery, Pointe du Hoc and Omaha Beach - in relatively abbreviated fashion. The stories are told better elsewhere.

However, what is not told better elsewhere, and what makes this book so different and interesting, is signalled by the subtitle "The Battle for Normandy". Whereas many others stop at the successful establishment of the Normandy beachhead, Mr. Beevor takes us further - much further. He takes us into the hedgerows of Normandy and the bloody and difficult fighting that took place there, to the breakthrough, leading to the great turkey shoot of the Falaise Gap, where the Allied air forces and artillery caused staggering carnage among the Germans trying to escape the closing Allied pincers. The story ends with the liberation of Paris.

Many (myself included) have discounted D-Day and the Western Front as a drop in the bucket, compared to the titanic struggles of the Eastern Front, but Mr. Beevor convincingly shows that the Normandy effort was no mere sideshow. The Allies faced difficult terrain, a determined enemy (including fanatical SS divisions) with often vastly superior equipment (the 88mm gun, the Tiger and Panther tanks and the MG42 light machine gun), and incompetence, one-upmanship and dissension in the Allied upper ranks (the arrogant, difficult, prickly and often downright infuriating Montgomery and the vain, gung-ho, glory-hunting "Blood and Guts" Patton get special attention here).

The subject of prickliness brings up the Free French. Winston Churchill famously said that, of all the crosses he had to bear, the heaviest was the cross of Lorraine (the emblem of the Free French). Charles de Gaulle and the Free French military were afraid that the Resistance, of which a large part was ardently Communist, would seek to form a government once the Germans had been defeated, and were prepared to step on as many toes as necessary to ensure that this didn't happen. On the helpful French side, Mr. Beevor gives its due the tremendous work done by the Resistance in handicapping the Germans' effort to get men and matériel to the front. This success provoked some of the more vicious German reprisals, notably the acts of the Das Reich SS Division in Tulle and Oradour-sur-Glane.

In terms of viciousness, the savagery of the fighting in Normandy was often on a par with that in the East. Thankfully, the many mistakes and misjudgements on the Allied side were more than compensated by those of the German side even without being hamstrung by the tactical and strategic genius of Corporal Adolf Hitler. In addition, the Allies had almost complete air superiority from Day One, and, given good weather, shot up and bombed everything that moved. They helped throw an enormous spanner in the works of any German attempt to counter-attack.

Most of all, and unlike any of the other D-Day writers I can think of, Mr. Beevor details the appalling suffering of the French population caught in the middle of these terrible events, looted and murdered in reprisal by one side, bombed, shelled and looted by the other. The Vietnam experience of destroying a town or village in order to save it is frequently repeated. The most famous case is Caen, an Allied goal on the first day, which they didn't make, and which was bombed flat, but it was to be repeated, by accident or design, in many other places. Never was William Tecumseh Sherman's famous remark that "war is hell" more true than here.

In short, an excellent volume and highly recommended.

42 of 46 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A compelling read August 29, 2009

By Personne TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

At well over 500 pages, Antony Beevor's newest work is quite a lot to pick up. I'm happy to report that it's much harder to put down.

We are at an important point for historians of the Second World War. The events are two-thirds of a century in the past. But these events are still living memory for thousands of people. The outlines of the Normandy effort have been known and recounted for quite some time. What recent years and recollections have given us is detail. We can now say more about the effectiveness of a particular battle and how it may have had a completely different outcome. We have many more vignettes recounted by soldiers and civilians alike. And we finally come face to face with the enormous price paid by tens of thousands of people who called Normandy their home. The passage of time gives a historian perspective. The passage of too much time leaves a historian with no one to talk to.

While there are brief appearances by major historical figures--Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin, Eisenhower, de Gaulle--Beevor tells this story primarily from a tactical point of view. The book opens with the last details of planning the assault and ends with the liberation of Paris. Most of us think of "D-Day" as the series of beach assaults beginning on June 6. That was only the beginning. There was terrible fighting and loss of life for more than two more months. The account of Omaha beach is unnerving. There is confusion, slaughter and there are atrocities on all sides. This is an effective telling, done with words alone. Those of us who were not there can only wonder what we would have done.

Our view of well-known names is sharpened. We get a better picture of the plodding but strategic Omar Bradley. We learn about the vain and often ineffective Montgomery, the vain but ruthlessly effective Patton. We learn how many of the best German generals knew it was a lost cause, but soldiered on. We get an even stronger picture of the qualitative advantages of German training and weaponry over almost anything in the Allied toolkit. If Germany had not extended itself all over Europe, it is hard to see how they could have ever been dislodged.

Beevor provides his own analysis of battle plans and results. Often a battle could have been won with a small change in allocation of manpower. Often the wrong battle was joined. This is what a half-century of post-game analysis gives you. Lack of information often caused the deaths of thousands. It may be hard to understand this fully from our technological time. There were no weather satellites, no GPS system, no U2 spy planes. Entire companies marched off, often not even knowing where they were.

It's not a perfect book, but I expect it to be in print for quite some time. There is time for follow-on editions to rectify any exclusions. While there were no photographs in my review copy, I understand there are quite a few in the book as released--I'll have to get a peek at the final version to see what I missed. There is a glossary, but it is insufficient for non-scholars. Important terms like 'E-boat' and 'Sapper' are missing. There are a great many tactical maps, perhaps of more use on a second read-through. But there is no single large map of the region. An index was promised, but not present, in my review copy. That index will be important and helpful for those inclined to pull the book off the shelf again and again. But my quibbles are minor.

A good book can answer questions and leave you with many more. Exactly what was it about the 'bocages' -- the hedgerows that hosted much of the early fighting--that made them so difficult? What was it that made the German tanks, particularly the Tigers, so much more effective than the Churchills and Shermans? I think there's room for a whole appendix on that. The people that fought this war are the generation of my parents. Whether it was reticence on their part or incuriosity on ours, it has taken too long to hear their stories. We seem to be making up for lost time. Beevor's fine and unflinching book goes a long way in filling those gaps.