Customer Reviews

Invasion: They're Coming

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"Invasion- They're Coming!" is a look at D-Day and the battle for Normandy from the German perspective. How did those manning the Atlantic Wall feel looking out upon a fleet the size the world has never seen before or since? Wave upon wave of bombers pounded them and then the unnerving of the naval shelling. Their remembrances, conversations and fear put you there amongst the din and dust with them. Enough lived through it to make the outcome doubtful.
When was Marcks convinced that this was no diversion but the real invasion? And why did his words fall on deaf ears. Where was Rommel and von Rundstedt and why? There were three German tank divisions within striking distance of the coast and yet they remained in place. One Reg. sat with engines running, within 30 kilometers of the coast. Why did they not receive the orders to advance until it was too late? There was more than Hitler's madness at play, much more. Carell's work belongs on the shelf of anyone with more than a passing interest in Normandy and the breakout. Paul Carell has done a great job of taking the reader into the invasion day bunkers, where terrified grenadiers man their machineguns to the last bullet to Hitler's insulated headquarters where decisions are made that ultimately doom any chance for a successful defense.

Carell shows the incredible effect allied airpower has on the battle at all times. Most devastating, was probably the allied counter-espionage campaign, that had Hitler's HQ convinced that Normandy was merely a feint, the real invasion coming at Pas de Calais.

As I read more and more about WWII I find I am searching out memoirs and accounts from perspectives other than an American perspective in order to get a more well rounded picture. Invasion does just this in a general sense. We see the German point of view throughout Operation Overlord from D-Day to the liberation of Paris. From the soldier in the bunkers to the generals that ran the war, we have a little from all of them.

As to be expected a good portion of the book covers D-Day and the beachheads gained by the Allies. The opening chapter does a great job of showing the wonderings of the German soldiers on when and where the invasion would ultimately come. The quietness of the beaches, aside from the bombers flying over, was countered with the roar of dropped bombs as the invasion began, as the naval bombardment injected death in to the German front. Ultimately the hopelessness of the situation is portrayed as the chapter closes with the German prisoners being bombed by their own army as they are being ferried on to boats.

The rest of the book follows the same line, using memoirs of the soldiers, generals and accounts of the specific divisions and armies to add the history behind the story, to show the human side of the German Army in WWII. At times it would seem that the author was listing off battalions, divisions, regiments and so on and the sheer number ultimately drowned some of the history, making it a little less readable. Ultimately any WWII buff should consider adding this to their library as it helps portray a unique point of view during WWII.

4 stars.