D-Day (Turning Points in History, 19) - Softcover

"Do you realize that by the time you wake up in the morning, 20,000 men may have been killed?"
–Winston Churchill, to his wife, the night before D-Day

It was the most massive, complex, and spectacular amphibious assault ever attempted, the long-awaited turning point in the bloodiest and most savage war in history. But when 7,000 ships, 11,000 aircraft, and 150,000 troops converged on the coast of Normandy on 6 June 1944, the outcome of the attack, code-named "Operation Overlord," was far from certain.

In D-Day, one of the foremost historians of the twentieth century provides an incisive and dramatic account of the strategic planning, in-fighting, invention, deception, and hard labor that led up to that momentous day. Through vivid, firsthand accounts of the battle, Martin Gilbert also captures the horror and heroism of D-Day, from daring paratroop attacks behind enemy lines to grim determination under withering fire on the beachheads.

Tracing the genesis of D-Day to the early days after Dunkirk, Gilbert recounts how the results of numerous commando raids–some successful, others disastrous–shaped the Allies planning for a full-scale assault. He reveals Churchill’s hands-on involvement in both strategic and tactical planning, and explains why the invasion was delayed for more than two years after America’s entry into the war.

Gilbert offers a wealth of new and detailed information on the Allies’ use of double agents and phantom armies to fool Hitler and his generals into believing that the Normandy invasion was a mere diversion in preparation for a larger assault elsewhere. He also reveals how British codebreakers provided Allied commanders with astonishingly accurate information on German troop movements, defense strategies, and command decisions.

D-Day introduces hundreds of extraordinary people whose confidence, ingenuity, and courage were crucial to the success of "Overlord." You’ll meet the American air commander who calmly assured Churchill that there would be no German planes over the Normandy beachheads, the bulldozer operator who took out a German bunker with sand, and the general who calmly strode the beach, cane in hand, personally leading his men over a seawall to safety.

Complete with twenty-seven maps prepared especially for this book, D-Day offers a fascinating, moving, and inspiring account that sheds new light on one of the greatest achievements in military history.

"Ideal for tucking into a day-pack for tours of Normandy's history-laden beaches."
—USA Today

"The finest short overview of Operation Overlord—the greatest amphibious assault in the history of warfare—is undoubtedly Sir Martin Gilbert's D-Day, a stunningly impressive account. As might be expected from Churchill's biographer, Gilbert is masterly on the grand strategic vision behind the Allied invasion of Normandy, but he also concentrates on the tremendous human story on the ground. Two sentences from this book actually moved me to tears when I read them, coming soon after a harrowing description of the often hand-to-hand fighting two miles behind the Sword and Gold beaches."
—Andrew Roberts, Evening Standard (London)