D-Day: The Battle for Normandy Hardcover - 2009

by Beevor, Antony

The definitiveaccount of theNormandy invasionby the bestsellingauthor of Stalingradand The Fall ofBerlin 1945

From critically acclaimed world historian, Antony Beevor, thisis the first major account in more than twenty years to cover thewhole invasion from June 6, 1944, right up to the liberation of Parison August 25. It is the first book to describe not only the experiencesof the American, British, Canadian, and German soldiers, butalso the terrible suffering of the French caught up in the fighting.More French civilians were killed by Allied bombing and shellingthan British civilians were by the Luftwaffe.

The Allied fleet attempted by far the largest amphibiousassault ever, and what followed was a battle as savage as anythingseen on the Eastern Front. Casualties mounted on both sides, asdid the tensions between the principal commanders. Even the joysof liberation had their darker side. The war in northern Francemarked not just a generation, but the whole of the postwar world,profoundly influencing relations between America and Europe.Beevor draws upon his research in more than thirty archivesin six countries, going back to original accounts, interviews conductedby combat historians just after the action, and many diariesand letters donated to museums and archives in recent years.

D-Day will surely be hailed as the consummate account ofthe Normandy invasion and the ferocious offensive that led to theliberation of Paris.