"Fifty years is a long time in the action-ridden twentieth century and yet D-Day seems as new as yesterday. It is not merely a piece of history, it is unforgettable history. In these thoughtful and eloquent essays, general readers together with veterans and their families—children, grandchildren—will see again what was required during that 'longest day' in the lives of tens of thousands of America's young men."—Robert H. Ferrell, editor of The Eisenhower Diaries
"A splendid book that adds considerably to our understanding of this momentous operation. Required reading for anyone interested in the history of World War II."—Robert A. Doughty, author of The Breaking Point: Sedan and the Fall of France, 1940
Author Biography: Theodore A. Wilson, professor of history at the University of Kansas, is author or editor of five other books including The Makers of Modern Dipomacy, World War II: Critical Issues, The Marshall Plan, 1947-1951, and The First Summit: Roosevelt and Churchill at Placentia Bay, 1941.
Contributors: General Omar Bradley, Robert Berlin, Raymond Callahan, Alexander S. Cochran, Alex Danchev, John S.D. Eisenhower, Arthur L. Funk, Robin Higham, David Hogan, Maurice Matloff, Forrest Pogue, Vice Admiral Friederich Ruge, Max Schoenfeld, Kevin Smith, Mark A. Stoler, Gerhard Weinberg, Don Whitehead, Theodore A. Wilson, Alan Wilt.
| List of Illustrations and Maps | ||
| Foreword | ||
| Foreword to D-Day: The Normandy Invasion in Retrospect | ||
| Introduction | ||
| 1 | Wilmot Revisited: Myth and Reality in Anglo-American Strategy for the Second Front | 3 |
| 2 | Biffing: The Saga of the Second Front | 24 |
| 3 | Constraining OVERLORD: Civilian Logistics, TORCH, and the Second Front | 42 |
| 4 | ULTRA, FORTITUDE, and D-day Planning: The Missing Dimension | 63 |
| 5 | Technology at D-day: Allied Weapons Old and New | 80 |
| 6 | The Navies and NEPTUNE | 101 |
| 7 | German Naval Operations on D-day | 120 |
| 8 | The Air Campaign | 134 |
| 9 | Special Operations and the Normandy Invasion | 155 |
| 10 | D-day 1944 | 175 |
| 11 | A Correspondent's View of D-day | 203 |
| 12 | Deposited on Fortune's Far Shore: The 2d Battalion, 8th Infantry | 213 |
| 13 | Caught in the Middle: The French Population in Normandy | 238 |
| 14 | Two Armies in Normandy: Weighing British and Canadian Military Performance | 261 |
| 15 | Assessing American Military Leadership: Two Postinvasion Corps Commanders | 282 |
| 16 | Dwight D. Eisenhower: Architect of Victory | 298 |
| 17 | D-day: Analysis of Costs and Benefits | 318 |
| Notes | 339 | |
| Glossary | 391 | |
| About the Contributors | 401 | |
| Index | 407 |
Overview
"Fifty years is a long time in the action-ridden twentieth century and yet D-Day seems as new as yesterday. It is not merely a piece of history, it ...