D-Day: Operation Overload from Its Planning to the Diliberation of Paris (Classic Conflicts) [Paperback]

Bernard C. Nalty (Author), Russell A. Prichard (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Combined Publishing; illustrated edition edition (August 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1840650958
• ISBN-13: 978-1840650952
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,257,597 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Overlord Overview, August 12, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: D-Day: Operation Overload from Its Planning to the Diliberation of Paris (Classic Conflicts) (Paperback)

Picking up this book after reading several others on D-Day and Normandy I thought it might be fairly lightweight. On the contrary, it is a very useful little volume and gives quite a lot of new information which I did not find elsewhere. The tactic of assembling contributions from eight different authors (over eleven chapters) is very effective, and most of them write clearly and concisely. Possibly the best chapter was the one by Edward Marolda on Operation Neptune - an aspect of D-Day often neglected by other books. The sixth chapter has some provocative views from Charles Kirkpatrick in which he is critical of the performance of both American and British soldiers in Normandy. I am always rather uneasy about armchair generals who are disparaging of the prowess of troops, some of whom now lie in cemeteries in France. In any case these opinions tend to contradict the evidence of some later chapters about the Normandy campaign (by other authors). However,I would recommend any D-Day enthusiast add this book to their collection.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars D-Day Consisely, July 1, 2000

By 

DONALD R. NAPIER - See all my reviews

This review is from: D-Day: Operation Overload from Its Planning to the Diliberation of Paris (Classic Conflicts) (Paperback)

Eleven authors, eleven chapters in 202 pages. A very concise and no doubt fully accurate account of the Overlord Operation: The cross-channel attack initiating the grand plan to destroy the Germany army on the continent of Europe. My interest in this book was initiated by its mention of the plan "Bodyguard". Churchill observed in October, 1943: "In wartime truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies". The purpose behind such design was to confuse the Germans and force them to spread their defenses. The overall disinformation and deception plan was codename Operation Bodyguard. The Allies initial assault was to be made with 5 divisions. In France the Germans had 60 divisions available or otherwise identified for defense of its Western Wall. Although the Allies had achieved both air and sea supremacy, the Axis ground forces could readily defeat a 5 division frontal assault -if they knew where it was to be. (Bodyguard refers to the overall disimformation and deception plan. Central to it was Fortitude, a plan to make the Germans think the Allied army was twice as large as actual.) The importance of Patton to Overlord is related to the following passage, quoted verbatum: <Some of the forces for Fortitude were completely fictitious, like the American Infantry division in Iceland reported to the Germans by "Twenty Committee" agents But most had some type of real existence, and many were fighting formations intended for another purpose. Troops training in Scotland were exaggerated by "Fortitude North" into the nonexistent British Fourth Army poised to invade Norway, a threat which kept 27 German divisions waiting in Scandinavia almost until July. "Even more impressive was "Fortitude South" which created in southern England the U.S. 1st Army Group or FUSAG to rival 21st Army Group and threaten Pas de Calais, as the Germans expected. Allied cover plans encouraged the Germans to believe that command of FUSAG had been given to the Allied general they most feared, Lt.Gen. George S. Patton, Jr. In fact Patton was marked to command U.S. Third Army, but even after D-Day the threat of FUSAG kept the 15th Army in the Pas de Calais., waiting for an invasion that never came. When, 3Rd Army did appear in Normandy "Twenty Committee" agents passed to the Germans the story that Patton had been demoted from command of FUSAG after a blazing row with Eisenhower, and had been replaced by the head of the U.S. Army Ground Forces, Gen. Lesley McNair.>

Thus, the Germans focused on Patton as the certain leader of the main invasion If any one piece of the deception and disimformation plan had been discovered the whole of Bodyguard likely would have crumbled and from the pieces the Germans would have divined or discovered the need to concentrate their forces in Normandy and most certainly would have driven the invasion forces back into the sea. Gen. Patton was the center jewel of the deception plan and since it worked he should have received far greater credit for the success of D-Day than history has chosen to give. NOTE: THE COVER'S PROMISED FORWARD BY Winston S. Churchll IS MISSING FROM THIs EDITION.