Staff Picks
Operation Overlord: D-Day Remembered, 75 Years On
- Bland L.
- Thursday, June 06, 2019
Collection
On the 75th anniversary of the landing of the allied forces on Normandy's beaches, few US veterans of the invasion survive to give first-hand accounts of what happened. Fortunately, Richland Library has a large collection of books (including personal narratives) covering the invasion from many angles. Among the more recent are best-selling historian Alex Kershaw's The First Wave: The D-Day Warriors Who Led the Way to Victory in World War II and "Everything We Have": D-Day, 6.6.44, a collection of combatants' accounts edited by Gordon H. Mueller.
Check the list below for these and many other titles to learn more about this momentous event in US (and world) history.
The D-Day Companion
Leading Historians Explore History's Greatest Amphibious Assault
Published in 2004
D-Day to Berlin
Victory in Europe Day by Day.
Published in 2013
"D-Day to Berlin covers this whole campaign, showing how both technical excellence and personal courage were necessary for success; how bitter quarrels between Allied generals were eventually resolved; and how largely untried troops created fearsome fighting units that swept to victory in May 1945"--Page 2 of cover.
D-day
The Battle for Normandy
Published in 2009
From critically acclaimed world historian, Antony Beevor, this is the first major account in more than twenty years to cover the whole invasion from June 6, 1944, right up to the liberation of Paris on August 25. It is the first book to describe not only the experiences of the American, British, Canadian, and German soldiers, but also the terrible suffering of the French caught up in the fighting.
Sand & Steel
The D-Day Invasion and the Liberation of France
Published in 2019
"Peter Caddick-Adams's account of the Allied invasion of France in June 1944 matches the monumental achievement of his book on the Battle of the Bulge, Snow and Steel, which Richard Overy has called the "standard history of this climactic confrontation in the West." Sand and Steel gives us D-Day, arguably the greatest and most consequential military operation of modern times, beginning with the years of painstaking and costly preparation, through to the pitched battles fought along France's northern coast, from Omaha Beach to the Falaise and the push east to Strasbourg. The Allied invasion of Europe involved mind-boggling logistics, including orchestrating the largest flotilla of ships ever assembled. Its strategic and psychological demands stretched the Allies to their limits, testing the strengths of the bonds of Anglo-American leadership. Drawing on first-hand battlefield research, fresh personal testimony, and a commanding grasp of all the archives and literature, Caddick-Adams's book does Operation Overlord full justice. Sand and Steel shows as well how liberating France hinged on two other key elements: the activities of the French Resistance and Operation Dragoon, which involved landing 887 ships along the French Rivera, including seven aircraft carriers and 2,000 plans. It was Dragoon as much as Overlord that inspired resistance fighters throughout France to rise up. The implementation of Dragoon was controversial. Backed by Eisenhower and Stalin the other D-Day invasion was strongly opposed by Churchill, who believed a less costly breakthrough in the Mediterranean was imminent. This volume in Caddick-Adams's epic trilogy of the final year of World War II is the first book to incorporate all the elements of D-Day, and to reveal in full what lay behind eventual Allied victory in Europe."-- Provided by publisher.
Eyewitness D-Day
Firsthand Accounts from the Landing at Normandy to the Liberation of Paris
Published in 2005
Forgotten
The Untold Story of D-Day's Black Heroes, at Home and at War
Published in 2015
In the early hours of June 6, 1944, the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion, a unit of African-American soldiers, landed on the beaches of France. Their orders were to man a curtain of armed balloons meant to deter enemy aircraft. One member of the 320th would be nominated for the Medal of Honor, an award he would never receive. Drawing on newly uncovered military records and dozens of original interviews with surviving members of the 320th and their families, Linda Hervieux tells the story of these heroic men charged with an extraordinary mission, whose contributions to one of the most celebrated events in modern history have been overlooked.
The Jedburghs
The Secret History of the Allied Special Forces, France 1944
Published in 2005
"The Jedburghs were a pioneering Special Forces unit, uniquely made up of American, British, and French volunteers. They parachuted deep behind the German lines to assist with the recapture of France in 1944. Dropped in teams of three, the Jeds would rally local opposition to the Germans and conduct guerrilla warfare - sabotage, ambush, and intelligence gathering - ahead of the advancing Allied armies. In doing so, they contributed to the Allied breakout from the Normandy bridgehead and to the rapid advance to the German border."
The First Wave
The D-Day Warriors Who Led the Way to Victory in World War II
Published in 2019
"Beginning in the predawn darkness of June 6, 1944, The First Wave follows the remarkable men who carried out D-Day's most perilous missions. The charismatic, unforgettable cast includes the first American paratrooper to touch down on Normandy soil; the British glider pilot who braved antiaircraft fire to crash-land mere yards from the vital Pegasus Bridge; the Canadian brothers who led their troops onto Juno Beach under withering fire; as well as a French commando, returning to his native land, who fought to destroy German strongholds on Sword Beach and beyond. Readers will experience the sheer grit of the Rangers who scaled Pointe du Hoc and the astonishing courage of the British airborne soldiers who captured the Merville Gun Battery in the face of devastating enemy counterattacks. The first to fight when the stakes were highest and the odds longest, these men would determine the fate of the invasion of Hitler's Fortress Europe--and the very history of the twentieth century. The result is an epic of close combat and extraordinary heroism. It is the capstone Alex Kershaw's remarkable career, built on his close friendships with D-Day survivors and his intimate understanding of the Normandy battlefield. For the seventy-fifth anniversary, here is a fresh take on World War II's longest day"-- Provided by publisher.
Landing on the Edge of Eternity
Twenty-four Hours at Omaha Beach
Published in 2018
"Drawn from eyewitness accounts, memories, letters, and post-combat reports, examines the first twenty-four hours of the Allied landing on Omaha Beach." -- (Source of summary not specified)
The Americans at Normandy
The Summer of 1944 -- the American War from the Normandy Beaches to Falaise
Published in 2004
Soldier, Sailor, Frogman, Spy, Airman, Ganster, Kill or Die
How the Allies Won on D-day
Published in 2018
"Account of the first 24 hours of the D-Day invasion told by a symphony of incredible accounts of unknown and unheralded members of the Allied - and Axis - forces."-- Provided by publisher.
"Everything We Have"
D-Day, 6.6.44
Published in 2019
Over 150,000 troops landed on the five beaches of D-Day, with over 20,000 reported casualties across both sides. June 6, 1944 will be a day forever remembered in history. The story of D-Day has been told on countless occasions, and is an event that reverberates through time as one of the most pivotal moments in our history. 'Everything We Have' tells the personal stories of the people involved in Operation Overlord, in their own words. Using rare documents, artifacts and first-hand accounts from US The National WWII Museum's official archives, you can gain a rare insight into the thoughts and feelings of those soldiers who landed on the beaches of Normandy.
Dog Company
The Boys of Pointe Du Hoc--the Rangers Who Accomplished D-Day's Toughest Mission and Led the Way Across Europe
Published in 2012
Omaha Beach and Beyond
The Long March of Sergeant Bob Slaughter
Published in 2009
The National Guardsmen of Virginia's 116th Infantry Regiment were known as 'Home Nannies' or 'Weekend Warriors'. On 6 June 1944, however, these proud Virginians showed the world what true courage and bravery really was.
The World War II D-Day Invasion in American History
Published in 2004
Discusses the events surrounding the D-Day invasion of Europe by Allied Forces on June 6, 1944.
The Cover Up at Omaha Beach
D-Day, the US Rangers, and the Untold Story of Maisy Battery
Published in 2014
Neptune
The Allied Invasion of Europe and the D-Day Landings
Published in 2014
"On June 6, 1944, 160,000 Allied troops landed along 50 miles of French coastline to battle German forces on the beaches of Normandy. D-Day, as it would come to be known, would eventually lead to the liberation of Western Europe, and was a critical step in the road to victory in World War II. Yet the story begins long before the Higgins landing craft opened their doors and men spilled out onto the beaches to face a storm of German bullets. The invasion, and the victories that followed, would not have been possible without the massive naval operation that led up to it: Neptune. From the moment British forces evacuated the beaches of Dunkirk in 1940, Allied planners began to consider how, when, and where they would re-enter the European continent. Once in the war, the Americans, led by George Marshall, wanted to invade in a year's time. The British were convinced this would be a tragic mistake. Allied forces would be decimated by the Wehrmacht. When Operation Overlord -- the name given to the cross-Channel invasion of Northern France -- was finally planned, it was done so only in concert with the seaborne assault that would bring the men and equipment to the Normandy coast. Symonds traces the central thread of this Olympian event -- involving over five thousand ships and nearly half a million personnel -- from the first talks between British and American officials in the winter of 1941 to the storming of the beaches in the late spring of 1944. He considers Neptune's various components, including the strategic unity, industrial productivity, organizational execution, and cross-cultural exchange on which the Allies depended. Portraits of key American and British figures, from Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Eisenhower to Admiral Ernest J. King and his British counterpart, Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay, combine with an intimate look at men up and down the chain of command. Neptune was the pinnacle of Allied organization and cooperation. From the suppressing of the U-boat menace in the Battle of the Atlantic, to the establishing of camps and training facilities near the English coast, to the gearing up of the American industrial machine to produce the ships, tanks, and tools of war that would make an invasion possible, Symonds' riveting narrative uncovers the means by which Neptune was brought to fruition, and presents the first comprehensive account of the greatest naval operation in history"-- Provided by publisher.