Normandy ‘44: D-Day and the Battle for France

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Random House presents the audiobook edition of Normandy ’44 by James Holland, read by John Sackville.
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Renowned World War Two historian James Holland presents an entirely new perspective on one of the most important moments in recent history. Unflinchingly examining the brutality and violence that characterised the campaign, it’s time to draw some radically different conclusions.
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D-Day and the 76 days of bitter fighting in Normandy that followed have come to be seen as a defining episode in the Second World War. Its story has been endlessly retold, and yet it remains a narrative burdened by both myth and assumed knowledge.

In this reexamined history, James Holland presents a broader overview, one that challenges much of what we think we know about D-Day and the Normandy campaign. The sheer size and scale of the Allies’ war machine ultimately dominates the strategic, operational and tactical limitations of the German forces.

This was a brutal campaign. In terms of daily casualties, the numbers were worse than for any one battle during the First World War.

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·Drawing on unseen archives and testimonies from around the world

·Introducing a cast of eye-witnesses that includes foot soldiers, tank men, fighter pilots and bomber crews, sailors, civilians, resistance fighters and those directing the action

·An epic telling that will profoundly recalibrate our understanding of its true place in the tide of human history

13 reviews for Normandy ‘44: D-Day and the Battle for France

  1. P. SKEATES

    Everything you need to know
    Well written, informative and probably the ultimate book on the subject. Its written at a level that someone who is new to the subject can fully understand and comprehend the subject. Its approach is a little different in that incorporates the individual stories of some of the lesser names of the story…this brings the whole thing to life. Very sad and moving, it’s the best book I’ve read this year. Everything you wanted to know about D Day and the follow up. Well illustrated and worth buying.

  2. Jeep201

    Excellent narrative great detail
    Very easy read with clear concise insights to a huge subject. Can not recommend it enough. Hard to put down

  3. Mr. C. Maitland

    A good but flawed read.
    Overall a good read. Holland is a master of detail and writes with enthusiasm and admiration for those involved in the Normandy campaign.Two points of criticism though: he writes about too many individuals. Concentrating on fewer would have given the reader more connection with them. In addition the concentration on the men who fought, while admirable in intent, reduces the political leaders and generals to bit players. A rebalance is required. Secondly Holland’s style while easy to read, leans too far to the colloquial and ofter descends into cliché.

  4. jonathanrennie

    Good read
    fully injoyed reading this book James Holland is an excellent author and does his research properly

  5. Timbo

    Riveting
    Great book. So informative, and strictly factual, but reads like an adventure novel, so it’s hard to put down. Highly recommended.

  6. Richard

    Another Great Read
    As expected from this author, the level of detail in his writing is fantastic. He tries to give an all round view of the battles he writes about from both sides of the war and from civilians caught up in it. Great book to read for anyone interested in World War 2 history of even 20th Century history in general.

  7. Amazon Customer

    I’ve waited a long time for this book
    Detail, fascinating timeline highlighting Allied and Axis memories. Eye opening insight into High Command Planning and Strategy. The fog has cleared with regard to my father’s role in 1944.Brought a tear to my eye.

  8. Mr. J. Hastings

    Comprehensive but minor errors
    It would not quite be true to say that this book fills a gap since there are other books on the Normandy campaign of 1944 but they are vastly outnumbered by books and articles on D-Day itself. This is certainly a comprehensive book, with 540 pages of text, another hundred pages of supporting information, twenty-five maps and an impressive array of photographs. Holland’s approach is to give an overview of events fleshed out with the personal stories of numerous individuals on each side. It is an indication of the sizes of the forces on both sides (and of the thoroughness of Holland’s research) that most of their names were unfamiliar to me, in spite of my fairly extensive reading on D-Day and the Normandy campaign.In Part I Holland begins with preparations, German and Allied, for the invasion. He emphasises the importance of the Allied campaign to gain mastery of the air and to destroy the French railway system, marshalling yards, bridges, locomotives and rolling stock, on which the German units on the coast depended for their supplies.Part II covers D-Day itself in some detail. Part III is titled “Attrition”. Hitler having refused to allow his armies to retreat, the Allies had to grind them down, which they did successfully but at heavy cost. The British and Canadians, with three armoured divisions, pinned down seven German panzer divisions, reducing them to about ten per cent of their starting strength. The British and Canadian units suffered similar casualty rates but were able to bring in replacements, although Britain in particular was running out of men. Part IV, “Breakout” describes the battles leading up to the final breakthrough and sweeping movement of the Americans culminating in the almost complete destruction of the German army in Normandy.Holland discusses the two philosophies of making war. The Allies decided on a mechanised war with massed artillery and air-to-ground attacks with fighter bombers, medium and heavy bombers in preparation for and in support of infantry and tank attacks. This required them to maintain a strong manufacturing base for equipment and ammunition. They also invested in equipment to retrieve disabled tanks and workshops to put them back into service. The German infantry divisions still relied heavily on horses for transport; only the panzer divisions were fully mechanised. Also, attrition on the Eastern front meant that the German infantry divisions in France were largely made up of older men, teenagers and reluctant conscripts from conquered nations. German tactical doctrine emphasised the importance of swift counter-attack and the Allies were able to exploit this by attacking, digging-in and defeating the counter-attack with artillery and air power.There is a chapter on weapons in which Holland argues there was little to choose between the infantry small arms of each nation. The German MG42 was not the best machine gun; it was too prone to overheating leading to jams and requiring frequent barrel changes. The American Browning and the British Bren were more reliable and more accurate. Tanks and anti-tank guns on both sides were more comparable than we have been led to believe. British and Americans were liable to report German Mark IVs as Tigers. The British Churchill tank had thicker frontal armour than any German tank. Most German tank and anti-tank guns were not 88mms; the British had increasing numbers of the 17-pounder, which could beat any German armour. Allied tank guns had a higher rate of fire than the Tigers and, more importantly, the Allies had far more tanks and anti-tank guns and better systems for retrieving damaged tanks from the battlefield and getting them back into service. (In the GOODWOOD attack 493 British tanks were damaged or knocked out but only 156 of these were written off.)Holland also has some corrective thoughts on significant incidents on D-Day. The phrase “Bloody Omaha” has tended to dominate recent accounts of D-Day, fuelled by films such as “The Longest Day” and “Saving Private Ryan”. There have also been TV documentaries claiming that the whole invasion nearly came to grief on Omaha beach. It didn’t. But the success of the other four beach assaults and the airborne landings on both flanks have been overshadowed by Omaha. Of course, Omaha was the most difficult of the invasion beaches. Company A of 116th infantry lost 150 killed and wounded in the landing craft and crossing the beach. Only twenty made it to the relative safety of the beach wall. However, companies B and C of the same unit suffered only a handful of casualties each. The landings began at 6.30 a.m. Holland says that as early as 8 a.m. the situation was moving in the American favour and an hour later they were wresting control from the defenders. The defence at Omaha was tough but very thin and there were not enough reserves to mount a significant counter-attack. Total American dead at Omaha was 842, or 2.8% of all those landed there on D-Day, nothing like as bad as had been expected.The book is well-illustrated with photographs; portraits of some of the personalities whose adventures are described in the text, full-page photographs scattered throughout the book and two blocks of photographs with four to eight pictures on each page. This means they are small but there are plenty of them. The maps (twenty-five of them) are all placed together at the beginning of the book. I did wonder (as I often do with war books) whether the person (people) who drew the maps had actually read the text. In the chapter on GOODWOOD, for example, the Bourguebus ridge and the railway embankment and line south-east from Caen were important objectives – but neither is shown on the appropriate map. Hills identified by their heights (e.g. Hill 192) are not always marked on the maps even though they were much fought-over.There are also a fair number of minor errors in the text. Some of these may be due to poor proof-reading but others must be down to the author. Some of the errors I noticed are:Page 153 says that USS Augusta was a 48,000 ton battleship. She was in fact a cruiser, about 10,000 tons and not particularly well-armoured. On p 75 Holland correctly says the Augusta was a cruiser.P 119 describes HMS Renown as “mighty” and HMS Hood as a heavy cruiser. Both ships were classed as Battlecruisers and the Hood was bigger and more heavily armed than the Renown. It was the Hood that was known as the “mighty Hood”.P 54 describes a trench system as “reverted”. Presumably this should say “revetted”.P 131 Holland says that E company of the 2nd Battalion, 506th PIR was nicknamed Easy Company. It wasn’t. Easy is simply the phonetic alphabet for the letter E. This is odd because on p 155 Holland shows that he understands how the phonetic alphabet was used to designate sectors of the invasion beaches.At the bottom of p 169 Holland uses “west” when he means “east”; a not uncommon mistake. On p 487, VIII Corps is said to be on the left. It should be on the right as on the BLUECOAT map.P 326 uses the word “sherwoods”. In the context “Sherman” tanks are obviously meant.P 355 Holland refers to a “Honey” without explaining that that was a British nickname for the Stuart light tank. Nor does he tell us how Lance Corporal Ken Tout’s Honey came to be taken away from him.P 572 mentions “White Red” sector of Omaha beach. There was no such sector as they were named by letters of the phonetic alphabet followed by a colour. Dog White or Fox Red might be meant.P 567 says that at 04:45 on D-Day midget (not “pocket”) submarines X20 and X23 “arrive nearly 1 km from Normandy shore”. In fact they had been there for several days because they had to arrive and locate themselves as markers for the British section of the invasion in time for the planned assault on June 5th. 04:45 would be the time they surfaced to set up their marker beacons.These errors are comparatively minor but my concern is that there may be others which I have not identified and which may be more serious. They mar an otherwise excellent book and are not a good advertisement for the proof-readers of the publishers, Bantam Press.Overall I would recommend this book for anyone who wants a through account of the Normandy campaign in one volume. If you want a short overview I am afraid you will have to look elsewhere.

  9. Travelbug 200

    Written by a notable WWII historian, this book offers insights into the actual events in the invasion of Normandy. This book is for true history buffs of this era.

  10. Richard

    Auch mit durchschnittlichen Englischkenntnissen gut und flüssig zu lesen.Inhaltlich sehr gut aufbereitet, anschaulich & objektiv geschrieben.Unschlagbar auch der Preis. Sehr viel neues Wissen (auch für mich als Kenner der Materie) zu einem kleinen Preis (deutschsprachige Fachliteratur ist in der Regel teurer).Alles in allem eine klare Kaufempfehlung.

  11. yener

    Okunmalı

  12. Victoria

    Loved it!

  13. Cliente Amazon

    Excelente em descrição de batalhas e detalhes

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