Ten Days to D-Day: Citizens and Soldiers on the Eve of the Invasion [Paperback]

David Stafford (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 24, 2005

Ten days before the largest operation of World War II was launched, it was still one of the century’s best-kept secrets—thanks to countless ordinary people participating in one of history’s most remarkable moments. David Stafford has written a riveting account of ten of those ordinary men and women—including an American paratrooper, a German soldier, a nineteen-year-old English woman working on secret codes, a Parisian Jew in hiding, and a daring French resistance cell—as they lived through ten very extraordinary days. Drawing on previously unpublished diaries and letters, Stafford gives readers a fresh point of entry into one of the most significant battles ever fought.Ten Days to D-Day buzzes with the pace of a novel, as Stafford moves from country to country, from character to character, including some of D-Day’s leaders: Hitler, Rommel, Eisenhower, and Churchill. Stafford compellingly brings to life the final days before the invasion through the eyes of its participants, the citizens and soldiers that made history on June 6, 1944.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Stafford (Spies Beneath Berlin) does an excellent job of re-creating the tensions and anticipations of those who were preparing to fight on D-Day, and the stakes involved for (and often desperate movements of) nonmilitary people on the ground in Europe. Churchill, Eisenhower, Hitler and De Gaulle are here, along with Canadian rifleman Glenn Dickin; Norwegian resister Peter Moen; French resister Sonia d'Artois; double agent Juan Pujol; Albert Grunberg, who was Jewish and in hiding in Paris; and myriad Americans.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

With the sixtieth anniversary of D-Day looming, Stafford's coverage of the 10 days preceding the actual event makes a worthy contribution to the literature. Stafford considers a number of individual's viewpoints, including those of such major leaders as Eisenhower, Churchill, Rommel, and Hitler, and shows the Allied leaders biting their nails rather harder than were their Axis counterparts theirs. Less prominent figures whose perspectives also appear include a codebreaking Wren (i.e., a member of the British Women's Royal Naval Service), a French Jew hiding out in Paris, a Norwegian resistance fighter whom the Germans had already caught, and a young Canadian soldier facing his first and, it turned out, last battle. More than most other books on D-Day, Stafford's points out that, from the vantage of 60 years, the suspense preceding D-Day is hard for us to fully understand, and the additional fact that, even at the time, most people involved realized they were caught up in an epic historical movement. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (May 24, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0306814226
• ISBN-13: 978-0306814228
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #239,307 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating "behind the scenes" history, July 30, 2004

By 

Frank J. Konopka (Shamokin, PA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ten Days to D-Day: Citizens and Soldiers on the Eve of the Invasion (Hardcover)

Most books published about D-Day give scant mention to the background of the invasion, and concentrate on the invasion itself, and its aftermath. This extremely well-written book covers the 10 days that preceeded the invasion, through the lives not only of the important political and military folks involved, but also the common people. We share the lives of paratroopers, ground troops, signal interceptors, spies, prisoners, and others, and learn about their contributions, however small, to the ultimate success of the invasion. It is writing of personal history at its best, and we do get to be informed as to what happened to these people we grew to care about after the invasion. Several of them are still alive, and they, and the multitude of others who have gone to their rest deserve our eternal gratitude for what they all did for us that glorious 6th of June, 1944.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb contribution to understanding D-Day and people at war, July 5, 2004

By 

Richard E. Hourula (Berkeley, CA. United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ten Days to D-Day: Citizens and Soldiers on the Eve of the Invasion (Hardcover)

There are so many aspects of this book that are praise worthy it's difficult to know where to start.
The dramatic build up to the D-Day invasion.
The superb pacing.
The fully drawn historical figures.
The variety of people and places depicted.
The important contribution to our understanding of D-Day.
David Stafford's "Ten Days to D-Day" is one of the best and most important works on World War II I've read in recent years. It is a testament to Stafford's amazing talents as a researcher and a writer. The author acquaints us with such disparate figures as Adolph Hitler, a young English woman supporting the war effort as a WREN, an American paratrooper, Charles DeGaulle, a Gestapo prisoner in Norway, a member of the French resistance to name a few.
We follow these people and numerous others in the ten days before the greatest sea-to-land invasion ever contemplated. We share their anxieties, fears, hopes and plans. We get to know not only where they were in those ten days but how they got there. Stafford never lingers with any person to long, deftly going from one person to the next while ultimately still managing to give full justice to each story. Because of the breadth of characters, Stafford hardly ever needs to step away to offer perspective, it's there. He also eschews "cheating," almost never framing his stories with latter-day knowledge.
This would be a useful to students of World War II especially those with a particular interest in D--Day. At the same time it would serve as a great introduction to the war and this aspect of it to a newcomer. Yet at the same time it would be an entertaining for someone just looking for a good read. Remarkable.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As gripping as fiction, but more important, May 26, 2004

By 

Ellen E Kennedy (Cary, NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ten Days to D-Day: Citizens and Soldiers on the Eve of the Invasion (Hardcover)

In Norway, a captured member of the Resistance keeps a secret diary by poking tiny holes in toilet paper. In the relative safety of Britain, a young member of the Women's Royal Naval Services, a Wren, works long, grueling hours underground, coding and decoding ships' messages. Also in Britain, a young Canadian soldier fights frustration and boredom, waiting for the order to move out.

In France, a member of the Resistance listens anxiously to the BBC on a tiny radio hidden inside a soup can. A German soldier stationed in France writes home wishful assurances that all is well. TEN DAYS TO D-DAY follows these and many others as they count down the minutes to H-hour and what happenS when the signal is given. There is much pain and struggle ahead, but it marks the beginning of the end of the War.

Drawing from diaries, official records and first-hand accounts, David Stafford has compiled a gripping history of extraordinary courage and sacrifice in the most dramatic, agonizing days of the European front in World War II. Especially appropriate at the sixtieth anniversary of D-Day, it is every bit as exciting as Tom Clancy's best. And it's all true.

Reviewed at Myshelf.com