Disaster At D-Day (Greenhill Military Paperbacks) [Paperback]

Peter Tsouras (Author)

Book Description

Series: Greenhill Military Paperbacks | Publication Date: September 4, 2000

This alternate history of the Allied D-Day landings is based very firmly on fact and is a brilliant study of how a campaign could lead to unexpected results. It is June 1944. The Allied armies are poised for the full-scale invasion of Fortress Europe. Across the Channel, the vaunted Wehrmacht lies waiting for the first signs of the invasion, ready for the final battle. What happens next is well known to any student of modern history - but the outcome could have been very different, as Peter Tsouras shows in this devastating account of a D-Day in which plans, missions and landings go horribly wrong. Peter Tsouras introduces minor adjustments at the opening of the campaign - the repositioning of a unit, bad weather and misjudged orders - and examines their effect as they gather momentum and impact upon all subsequent events. Without deviating from the genuine possibilities of the situation, he presents a scenario that keeps the reader guessing and changes the course of history.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Peter G. Tsouras is noted military historian and a leading writer of alternative history with 22 titles to his credit on subjects ranging from Alexander the Great to the American Civil War and the Second World War.  He recently retired from the US Government as a senior intelligence officer for the Defense Intelligence Agency.  He served with the 1st Battalion 64th Armor on active duty with the US Army and subsequently retired as Lieutenant Colonel from the United States Army Reserve.  He was born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada, and currently resides in Alexandria, Virginia.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Greenhill Books (September 4, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1853674117
• ISBN-13: 978-1853674112
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #967,127 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Dark D-Day Tale, July 12, 2003

By 

Alex Diaz-Granados "fardreaming writer" (Miami, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Disaster At D-Day (Greenhill Military Paperbacks) (Paperback)

On the sixth day of the sixth month of 1944, elements of six Allied infantry divisions and three airborne divisions began the assault on Hitler's Fortress Europe. Within 24 hours, despite horrible losses at some points, the first wave of invaders breached the German line and a huge Allied host began pouring ashore.

Peter G. Tsouras, tweaking history's reality by presenting a plausible chain of alternate events, paints a chilling picture of a German victory over the invading Allies. In Tsouras' fictional history, German armored units destroy the Omaha Beach landings, Hitler and his generals react much faster than they actually did, and nothing the Allies attempt to do in order to save Operation Overlord works.

Tsouras uses the techniques of a traditional historian. His prose is straightforward and never veers into novelistic style, even though this is, indeed, a novel by any other name. The use of maps, photographs and footnotes gives the book the feel of a "real" history book.

The only complaint I have is the choice of typeface....it's too small and makes the text a bit hard to read. Otherwise, it is a great book for history buffs and fans of the "what-if" genre.

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Disaster At D-Day: Fake History Sounds Real, June 26, 2002

By 

Martin Asiner (jersey city, nj United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Disaster At D-Day (Greenhill Military Paperbacks) (Paperback)

Alternate history novels are becoming increasing popular. Harry Turtledove sees to that. But almost as quickly is the category of non-fiction alternate history. In this latter 'history' the author takes a real life event and makes it come out different from the original. He makes no attempt to novelize it; thus, he does not have to worry about the proper use of typical writer's tools such as character development, symbolism, dialogue, and style. What this author must do is to write expository prose, clearly showing the relation of original cause to changed event. In DISASTER AT D-DAY, Peter Tsouras posits a German victory at Normandy in June of 1944. Tsouras notes that only a few changes would have been needed to insure an Allied debacle. In real life, Hitler refused to commit his reserve tank corps to back up his western wall on the beaches of Normandy. Had he done so, the Allies' advance could well have slowed. The problem with books of this type is that only the most determined of readers who have accumulated a vast reservoir of military history would have the fortitude to plow through a series of unconnected dots on a swirling map of war. I am a big fan of war in general and alternate war in particular, but even I had trouble keeping straight a constantly changing series of men, divisions, battles, and minor victories and defeats. The very nature of this genre precludes an author from connecting too many dots. The staying power of this book was the immensity of the background, but after having read it, I found that all I could take away from it was the realization that we came THISCLOSE to losing the big one.

31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A totally convincing enjoyable military history., January 15, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Disaster at D-Day: The Germans Defeat the Allies, June 1944 (Hardcover)

I was extremely excited to read this book when it came out, going so far as to pre-order at B&N (the checking it out at the library). It was timed for the anniversary of D-Day. The book was worth being excited about. This book is written in the style of a military history of a battle. Therefore, few first-person accounts occur through the book (a la the killer angels), but do occur where needed. If you've ever read an overview of a battle, then that's what you'll get here. In our history the allies came ashore at d-day and the germans responded particularly slowly; by the time they had concentrated troops it was too late to push the allies into the sea. The narrative shows that an amazing confluence of events made an invasion of this magnitude possible; if any had gone wrong then the whole thing would have gone out of whack. In Tsouras' world the germans are a little faster and that makes all the difference. Don't expect an alternative history story like turtledove's. There's no hitler twirling his mustache and saying "if i send zee panzers here than i will foil zat roosevelt." What you do have is a compelling read for anyone who has ever read an account of stalingrad, or waterloo, or gettsyburg, and thought, gee, if the napoleon had sent this corps in here an hour earlier what might have happened? Also enjoyable is the author's bibliography and final pages, which assume a historian writing a history years later about these events.