THE WORLD WAR TWO GROUP discussion

What book would you recommend for reading about D-Day and Overlord?

D-Day- Stephen Ambrose
D-Day- Antony Beevor
The Longest Day- Cornelius Ryan
Overlord: D-Day and the Battle for Normandy- Max Hastings
Omaha Beach- Joseph Balkoski
Utah Beach- Joseph Balkoski
Juno Beach- Mark Zuehlke
The Americans At D-Day- John C. McManus
Six Armies In Normandy- John Keegan
The Germans in Normandy- Richard Hargreaves
Related Books:
No Better Place To Die" Ste-Mere Eglise- Robert Murphy
Pegasus Bridge- Stephen Ambrose

Dr. Michael wrote: "D-Day- Stephen Ambrose
D-Day- Antony Beevor
The Longest Day- Cornelius Ryan
Overlord: D-Day and the Battle for Normandy- Max Hastings
Omaha Beach- Joseph Balkoski
Utah Beach- Joseph Balkoski
..."

I'd second these titles from Michael as I've read them but the others I haven't yet so can't comment:

D-Day- Antony Beevor
The Longest Day- Cornelius Ryan
Overlord: D-Day and the Battle for Normandy- Max Hastings
Six Armies In Normandy- John Keegan

Plus:
The Struggle for Europe by Chester Wilmot (classic account from D-Day to the end of the war)

Invasion! Theyre Coming!: The German Account of the D-Day Landings and the 80 Days Battle for France by Paul Carell

invasion : they are coming is a classic account. may be not in explaining the battles tactically but the human factor is magnified with lucid expressions.

Thanks for the heads up on Invasion: They're Coming. Sounds like an interesting read.

If you can get a copy, there's a personal story beginning with D-Day: "Surviving the Odds: From D-Day to VE-Day with the 4th Division in Europe" by Jack Capell. After the war Jack studied meteorology and became the Weatherman first for Portland radio, then on KGW in Portland retiring in his 70s, though suffering for many years from primary lateral sclerosis. He mentions in his book about drinking badly tainted water with no other choice and wondering if this caused his health problems. Jack was almost completely paralyzed when he wrote this book. He passed away in Aug 2008, 85 yrs. old. A very personal yet in depth book, he tells it like it is. Published by Regina Books, Powell's had it recently. Very well written.

Just looked it up on Amazon. looks like a very interesting book. Thanks Betty.

You are welcome.

I read Ramps Down, Troops Away! A Novel of D. Day and liked it, but as it is the only D-Day novel I have read I can't really say how it compares to others.

The reference book on the Battle Of Normandy by Badsey, Stephen. Normandy 1944, Allied Landings and Breakout. London: Osprey Publishing, 1990 is really a good book.

UNITED STATES ARMY IN WORLD WAR II
The European Theater of Operations
CROSS-CHANNEL ATTACK
by
Gordon A. Harrison

This is part of the "Green Book" history of World War II put out by the Army Historical Section. A detailed account.

http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwi...

There are many, many good ones, most of which have already been listed here. These days, if anything, we are glutted with Normandy books, some of which rehash the same old tales and come to the same old conclusions. Yet I vote for an old favorite of mine, D-Day by R.W. Thompson. This was the first volume in the excellent old Ballantine WW2 series, and like many in that series it is an excellent little book, fast-paced, accurate, and well-written.

Of the others, d'Este is good but he doesn't do the British army full justice. Neither do Ambrose and Hastings, and neither is entirely accurate. The Osprey and Pen and Sword Battleground volumes are very good, as is Balkoski's work on the 29th Division. Donald Burgett's "As Eagles Screamed" is a terrific, unpretentious soldier's memoir. Hugh Essame's "Normandy" and David Mason's "Breakout" are good volumes in the Ballantine series, Mason being better than Essame. Zetterling's work on the German army in Normandy has lots of useful technical information, but its conclusions are not to be trusted.

Dr. Michael wrote: "Thanks for the heads up on Invasion: They're Coming. Sounds like an interesting read."

It is interesting, yes, and as always Carrell provides a useful German perspective. His weakness is that he is too uncritical, and his books can degenerate into a collection of soldier's stories. (This was a big, big postwar genre in Germany.)

I wrote: "I read Ramps Down, Troops Away! A Novel of D. Day and liked it, but as it is the only D-Day novel I have read I can't really say how it compares to others."

If you can find it you might want to look at an old British novel called "A Man From Alamein," published in the 60's. (I have an old Corgi paperback.) It's not a great work of art, but it has a lot on Normandy. Best of all, the author, C. Macdonald Hull, was a veteran himself (a major and holder of the MC in 6th Green Howards of 50th Division) and he knew what he was writing about.

I just finished "The Bedford Boys" by Alex Kershaw. Because it introduces you to many of the people, it's a very personal account. I didn't learn much that I hadn't heard before about the battle itself, but it brought home the impact on one small Virginia town (22 young men of a town with a population of about 600 died in Normandy, 19 on the morning of 6/6/44). I thoroughly enjoyed the book and recommend it.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/66...

Must read the relevant chapters from Omar Bradley and Eisenhower's WW II accounts.

Pegasus Bridge is a great book, Gary, I agree. It's a quick read that provides a brief glimpse at what the Allies D-Day objectives were. I was fortunate enough to visit the bridge last May... yes, I'm gloating!

Betty wrote: "If you can get a copy, there's a personal story beginning with D-Day: "Surviving the Odds: From D-Day to VE-Day with the 4th Division in Europe" by Jack Capell. After the war Jack studied meteorol..."

On a related note

If You Survive: From Normandy to the Battle of the Bulge to the End of World War II, One American Officer's Riveting True Story

Is the story a young infantry officer who joins the 4th Division a week, 10 days after D-Day and is with them until the end of the war. I thought it was pretty good.

Sounds like an excellent book, thanks for the information happy.


by George Wilson

it's been on my used book store list for some time,
it's gotta show up someday.


Allan wrote: " Dr. Michael wrote: "Thanks for the heads up on Invasion: They're Coming. Sounds like an interesting read."

It is interesting, yes, and as always Carrell provides a useful German perspective. His ..."

For something a little bit different you could try these books which offer first-hand accounts of those who fought on D-Day and after:

by Jonathan Bastable
Description:
D-Day, June 6th, 1944, was the momentous turning point in World War II. More than that, it was a pivotal day in human history. On that morning, the largest armada every assembled carried 150,000 men - British, American, Canadian - across the English Channel. Those men set down on a bleak and heavily fortified stretch of the Normandy coast, where they fought to end what Churchill called "the new dark age" of Nazi domination. Compiled from contemporary letters and diaries, Voices From D-Day features first hand accounts of the Normandy landing, from both sides of the battle. Here, readers will find the voices of the great military planners, Churchill, Patton and Eisenhower, alongside tales of the battle from the ordinary soldier under intense fire, the French people watching the invasion and the German soldiers, facing the unexpected enormity of Operation Overlord.

by Roderick Bailey
Description:
6 June 1944 is one of the most momentous days in history: the day Allied forces crossed the Channel and began fighting their way into Nazi-occupied Northwest Europe. Preceded by airborne units and covered by air and naval bombardment, the Normandy landings were the most ambitious combined airborne and amphibious assault ever attempted. Their success marked the beginning of the end for Nazi Germany.

Drawing on thousands of hours of eyewitness testimony recorded by the Imperial War Museum, Forgotten Voices of D-Day tells the compelling story of this turning point in the Second World War in the words of those who were there. We hear from paratroopers and commandos, glider pilots and landing craft crewmen, airmen and naval personnel. We learn first-hand of what it was like as men waited to go in, as they neared the beaches and drop zones, as they landed and met the enemy. Accounts range from memories of the daring capture of 'Pegasus' bridge by British glider-bourn troops to recollections of brutal fighting as the assault forces stormed the beaches. Shedding fresh light too on the American contribution, they include the memories of British personnel caught up in the terrible events at Omaha Beach where United States forces suffered over 2,000 casualties.

Featuring a mass of previously unpublished material, Forgotten Voices of D-Day is a powerful and important new record of a defining moment in modern history.

Here is another book to add to the recommended reading list for D-Day:


by George E. Koskimaki
Description:
Many professional historians have recorded the actions of D-Day but here is an account of the airborne actions as described by the actual men themselves in eyewitness detail. Participants range from division command personnel to regimental, battalion, company and battery commanders to chaplains, surgeons, enlisted medics, platoon sergeants, squad leaders and the rough, tough troopers who adapted quickly to fighting in mixed, unfamiliar groups after a badly scattered drop - and yet managed to gain the objectives set for them in the hedgerow country of Normandy. George Koskimaki was part of the 101st Airborne's daring parachute landing into occupied France that day. Now, drawing on more than five hundred firsthand accounts-including the never-before-published experiences of the trailblazing pathfinders and glider men-Koskimaki re-creates those critical hours in all their ferocity and terror. Told by those who ultimately prevailed-ordinary Americans who faced an extraordinary challenge-D-Day with the Screaming Eagles is the real history of that climactic struggle beyond the beachhead.

This is one book that I enjoyed on D-Day that covers the fighting from both sides of the beach:


by Edmund L. Blandford
Description:
This is the story of D-Day and the Invasion of Europe as seen by both the attacking and defending forces. It includes comments and descriptions from a wide range of Allied and German forces--from generals to front-line infantry soldiers. It relates the horror of combat through the eyes of the fighting men, conveying their terror, exhaustion, and often their fury.

I notice one excellent account on the Normandy landings that appears to be missing here which is Carlo D'Este's book; Decision in Normandy.


by Carlo D'Este
Description:
The battle for Normandy was the most complex and daring military operation in the history of modern warfare. Two years of intense, detailed planning reached its successful conclusion when the Allied forces took the beaches on D-Day. But the seventy-six-day campaign that followed, the Allies' crucial bid for a toehold in western Europe, was one of the bloodiest of the war, and its true story has been concealed in myth. Drawing on a wealth of previously unpublished papers, declassified documents, diaries, and personal interviews, Carlo D'Este has written the first full account of what actually happened in Normandy, how the campaign went wrong, and how it was eventually won. Step-by-step the reader is taken through the Normandy campaign from the earliest days after Dunkirk when Churchill first considered the idea of a cross-channel invasion of France, to the key battles that determined that outcome, with maps clearly explaining the strategy and logistics of each battle.

This is one book that I purchased recently that I need to try and read soon but it may also interest other readers here who enjoy accounts of D-Day:

by Flint Whitlock
Description:
"Gentlemen, do not be daunted if chaos reigns; it undoubtedly will." So said Brigadier S. James Hill, commanding officer of the British 3rd Parachute Brigade, in an address to his troops shortly before the launching of Operation Overlord-the D-Day invasion of Normandy. No more prophetic words were ever spoken, for chaos indeed reigned on that day, and many more that followed.

Much has been written about the Allied invasion of France, but award-winning military historian Flint Whitlock has put together a unique package-the first history of the assault that concentrates exclusively on the activities of the American, British, and Canadian airborne forces that descended upon Normandy in the dark, pre-dawn hours of 6 June 1944. Landing into the midst of the unknown, the airborne troops found themselves fighting for their lives on every side in the very jaws of the German defenses, while striving to seize their own key objectives in advance of their seaborne comrades to come.

Whitlock details the formation, recruitment, training, and deployment of the Allies' parachute and glider troops. First-person accounts by the veterans who were there-from paratroopers to glidermen to the pilots who flew them into the battle, as well as the commanders (Eisenhower, Taylor, Ridgway, Gavin, and more)-make for compelling, "you-are-there" reading. If Chaos Reigns is a fitting tribute to the men who rode the wind into battle and managed to pull victory out of confusion, chaos, and almost certain defeat.

Picked up this book today which may interest some members. Note however that it only covers US forces on D-Day but it still looks pretty good:

by Michael Green
Description:
D-Day, June 6, 1944: it was the biggest amphibious operation in history. German Field Marshal Rommel, declared, “the enemy must be annihilated before he reaches our main battlefield,” the Allied Forces undertook a massive invasion of the German-occupied coast of Normandy, France. First, there was the aerial onslaught by British and American airborne divisions, then the landing of the American, British, and Canadian seaborne troops. Over 150,000 Allied troops took the fight to the enemy, their incursion paving the way to their ultimate victory over Nazi tyranny. This book tells the story of those who lived and fought through this historic conflict. In first-person accounts of the Normandy landings, soldiers recreate the harrowing, world-changing drama of taking the beaches of France, dropping from the sky, wading out of landing craft, fighting to survive and, in the process, keeping alight the hopes of humanity.

Just completed this one. More for the historian as it's more factual as opposed to telling personal stories. It would make a great complement to reading
other books on D-Day. I enjoyed it.

Good to hear Carl as I have a copy on the way :)

Josh wrote: "What book would you recommend for reading about D-Day and Overlord?"

Normandy 1944-Richard Doherty
Falaise:The flawed victory-Anthony Tucker Jones
Eagles and bulldogs in Normandy 1944-Michael Reynolds
These are a few books worth reading about operation overlord and the battle of Normandy.

Some good books there Adrian, thanks for the recommendations.


by Richard Doherty

by Anthony Tucker-Jones

No problem.I enjoyed reading them.

Josh wrote: "What book would you recommend for reading about D-Day and Overlord?"

Recommend 'Overture to Overlord' by Lt General Sir Frederick Morgan who was responsible for initial Overlord planning. (There is another book of the same name by Francis Mackay - not read that one). Not sure General Morgan's book is still in print but excellent background if you can get hold of it - I have a copy somewhere!. One of his comments has always stuck in my mind:- "It is easy to come to speedy and seemingly obvious decisions when no question of responsibility applies." - or words to that effect! Ian

Great recommendation Ian, thanks for the information on what sounds like a very interesting book.

Ian wrote: "Josh wrote: "What book would you recommend for reading about D-Day and Overlord?"

Recommend 'Overture to Overlord' by Lt General Sir Frederick Morgan who was responsible for initial Overlord plann..."

Thanks Ian - will look out for this.

I've managed to add Overture to Overlord to Good reads with some information on the subject of the book:


by Frederick Morgan
Description:
A year before General Eisenhower was named Supreme Allied Commander, General Morgan was given the task of starting to plan for the invasion of the Continent from Britain. He tells his story with urbanity, but without shrinking from the need to pass judgment on men and methods.

Thanks Rick for adding General Morgan's book. An excellent background read.

A Happy Christmas to all.

Ian

I just finished . A nice but short overview of the D-Day invasion published in cooperation with the National D-Day Museum located in New Orleans. I am a big fan of the "Museum-in-a-Book" series as they provide facsimile documents from history that can be removed and reviewed. It makes for a much more personal and hands on experience when you can touch the reproductions of the maps, operational orders, invasion plans, and journal accounts rather than seeing and reading them on the printed page. The one recollection described in the book that really moved me was from a paratrooper who had landed on Utah Beach and was injured in the fighting and awaiting transport to one of the hospital ships offshore. Hassenzahl recalled:
"The wind was blowing across the beach. I had a blanket over me. The wind blew the blanket off me and it was very cold, but I didn't have the strength to reach the blanket. Then a very odd thing happened to me. An arm reached across my body and pulled that blanket up and tenderly tucked it around me, The arm belonged to a German POW who had been wounded and was lying on the stretcher next to me. I didn't say a word to him, but I was able to move my head a little and looked over at him. I looked in his eyes, he looked at me, neither one of us said a word, but mentally I might have said 'Thank you' with my eyes and he might have said, 'You're welcome' with his." page 29
This exchange shows that even in war, there can be moments of compassion and human decency between enemy combatants. That passage alone made the book worthwhile to me.

Happy Christmas to all as well!

That's a great account from your book Christie, thanks for sharing - much appreciated.

Ian wrote: "Thanks Rick for adding General Morgan's book. An excellent background read.

A Happy Christmas to all.

Ian"

Merry Christmas to you Ian, I hope Santa is nice to you :)

For those interested in doing a tour of the D-Day beaches and the Atlantic Wall this new book might be of interest:

by J.E. Kaufmann
Description:
Hitler's Atlantic Wall, the complex system of coastal fortifications that stretched from Norway to the Spanish border during the Second World War, was built to defend occupied Europe from Allied invasion. Many of its principal structures survive and can be visited today, and this book is an authoritative guide to them. The wall, which was constructed on a massive scale between 1942 and 1944 by German engineers, forced laborers and troops, consisted of strong points, artillery casemates, bunkers, troop shelters, minefields, anti-tank and anti-boat obstacles. It also included the concrete U-boat and E-boat pens in the key ports and, behind the Channel coast, the V-weapon sites. This huge scheme of fortifications was one of the longest defensive lines in military history.This history and guide takes the reader - and visitor - through the entire story of the fortifications from the fall of France to the Allied breakthrough and the defeat of the German armies in Normandy. This narrative puts the extensive remains that can be seen today in a fascinating historical context. As a guide to some of the most impressive relics of the Second World War, this book will be essential reading and reference for any one who is interested in the history of fortifications, D-Day and the liberation of occupied Europe.

'Aussie Rick' wrote: "For those interested in doing a tour of the D-Day beaches and the Atlantic Wall this new book might be of interest:

by J.E. Kaufmann
Descr..."

Oh, I will get that for my trip to Europe I'm planning. Great recommendation.

It sounds like a good book to follow the D-Day campaign with.

Something a bit different covering D-Day:



by Col Roy Stanley
Description:
The Normandy Invasion literally takes a different view of D-Day and just beyond, showing the well-known events using aerial photos. This is what anxiously waiting senior officers knew about progress in the early hours of 6 June 1944. The RAF and USAAF imagery used is almost entirely from long dormant U.S. Department of Defence Intelligence files. Examining the invasion scene beach-by-beach, the eyes of a trained, experienced photo interpreter uncover details a layman would certainly miss. This overview of Normandy landings and subsequent combat shows the scope and sweep of battle and helps explain why some objectives were reached, why some units forged ahead where others were stalled. We see the beaches as never before; their width at low tide; the support vessels off shore and equipment moving inland; formidable beach obstacles, and pre-invasion aerial reconnaissance. Think of this book as an adjunct to all the ground-level photos you have seen of men leaving landing craft or crouching beside sea walls - a different perspective on one of the momentous military actions of the last hundred years. Refer to this book when you read about D-Day and actually see what other authors have written about.

Book review on in this morning's Washington Post.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinion...

Thanks for the link to the review Christie.

Here is a new release covering one of the British Para's missions for D-Day. I am sure it will interest a few folks here:

by Stuart Tootal
Description:
In June 1944, an elite unit of British paratroopers was sent on a daring and highly risky behind-the-lines mission, which was deemed vital to the success of D-Day.

Dropping ahead of the main Allied invasion, 9 PARA were tasked with destroying an impregnable German gun battery. If they failed, thousands of British troops landing on the beaches were expected to die. But their mission was flawed and started to go wrong from the moment they jumped from their aircraft above Normandy.

Only twenty per cent of the unit made it to the objective and half of them were killed or wounded during the attack.

Undermanned and lacking equipment and ammunition, the survivors then held a critical part of the invasion beachhead. For six bloody days, they defended the Breville Ridge against vastly superior German forces and bore the brunt of Rommel's attempt to turn the left flank of the Allied invasion.

The Manner of Men is an epic account of courage beyond the limits of human endurance, where paratroopers prevailed despite intelligence failures and higher command blunders, in what has been described as one of the most remarkable feat of arms of the British Army and the Parachute Regiment during World War II.

Also listed in the New release section.

Another new title of interest:



by Kenneth Edwards
Description:
From an oil-pipeline laid across the English Channel sea-bed to the huge concrete Mulberry Harbors towed across to France, Operation Neptune was a logistical exercise without precedence. Following the Normandy landings of June 1944, huge amounts of matériel needed to be transported to the fighting armies. Neptune was a complex undertaking of unheard of complexity. Its importance is usually overlooked.

Wow!! Books on Normandy...there are so many great suggestions on these lists about books on Normandy...all are great.. I wanted to add these books by David Isby which focus in on the German POV

Fighting The Invasion: The German Army at D-DayThe German Army at D-Day: Fighting the InvasionFighting In Normandy

The books on airborne operations always interest me and they are
vast ...But one book by Dropzone Normandy: The Story of the
American and British Airborne Assault on D Day 1944

I think it is also time to go back into the past and see how the Normandy operations operated at ten year intervals...I did this once and went back through the newspapers and magazines after D Day starting after the war to see that,,,it was interesting that in the seventies it dropped off, at least in the American media..it was not until the eighties and especially the nineties that we began to see alot of coverage of it.

It is also time to re-evealuate some of the conceptions of D day and Normany we recieved over the past 69 years...
I am dying to take a peak into the papers of Cornelius Ryan at Ohio University http://www.library.ohiou.edu/archives...

Many years ago I had the pleasure of talking with Nigel Hamiltion on his books on MontgomeryMonty: The Making of a General: 1887-1942Monty, Vol. 2: Master of the Battlefield, 1942-1944Monty: Final Years of the Field-Marshal: 1944-1976

They are essential to read for a more balanced view than the one Americans got from Crusade in EuropeA Soldier's Story

All wars are shaped by the memoir literature that appears after them from the political and military leaders setting the stage for future mass understanding of their role in history through memoirs. This is explored brilliantly in In Command of History: Churchill Fighting and Writing the Second World War

I see the links got mixed up sorry folks

this might be better















This is good background on the British difficulties
Raising Churchills Armies
http://clio.columbia.edu/catalog/2743...

And this great book by English





and this one

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10...

Thanks for those details Jim, much appreciated.