D-Day/Operation Overlord Books

D-Day/Operation Overlord Books

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RosscoPCole

Original Poster:

3,419 posts

181 months

Monday 13th May 2013
quotequote all
Does anyone have any recommendations for a book covering the D-Day landings? Having been on a whistle-stop visit to Normandy I would like to find out more.
The books I have looked at on Amazon seem to have mixed reviews. What is the opinion of any PHers?
Thanks

marcosgt

11,094 posts

183 months

Monday 13th May 2013
quotequote all
I've not read the Ambrose book (it sits on my shelf waiting to be read), but the Cornelius Ryan "The Longest Day" was a very good read I thought.

It's got some really personal insights that make it read a bit like a novel (in a positive sense).

Better yet you can get a copy for a penny (plus postage, admittedly) on Amazon!

M.

buglabjab

30 posts

142 months

Monday 13th May 2013
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+1 for Cornelius Ryan "The Longest Day"
Also Pegasus Bridge, D Day and Band of Brothers by Stephen E Ambrose.

Edited by buglabjab on Monday 13th May 16:35

marcosgt

11,094 posts

183 months

Tuesday 14th May 2013
quotequote all
buglabjab said:
+1 for Cornelius Ryan "The Longest Day"
Also Pegasus Bridge, D Day and Band of Brothers by Stephen E Ambrose.
+1 for Pegasus Bridge (A nice change as it was a British operation) and Band of Brothers (although it's only partly D-Day specific). I expect D-Day by Ambrose is a good read too, but I've not yet read it (or Citizen Soldiers).

M.

Crafty_

13,482 posts

207 months

Tuesday 14th May 2013
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Overlord: D-Day and the battle for Normandy by Max Hastings. Antony Beevor has a book of the same name.

For the build up "Double Cross : The true story of the D-Day spies" by Ben Macintyre is worth a read.

I'll go and check to see what else might be of interest.

ETA:
The aforementioned Beevor book should give you a good idea of what happened on the ground.
I also have on the shelf:

Operation Fortitude: The Greatest Hoax of the Second World War by Joshua Levine that covers the intelligence operations used to deceive the Germans

D-Day 1944: Voices From Normandy by Robin Neillands and Roderick De Normann which is a bit more lightweight compared to the Beevor or Ryan book but will still give a good idea of what was going on.

There are a plethora of Band Of Brothers books but they cover the entire war, rather than just D-Day, it will be covered though as it was their first taste of action.


Edited by Crafty_ on Tuesday 14th May 20:36

Defcon5

6,304 posts

198 months

Tuesday 14th May 2013
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D-Day, Citizen Soldiers and Pegasus Pridge are all very very good.

3 of my favourite books

danjama

5,728 posts

149 months

Sunday 26th May 2013
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+1 on D-day and Citizen Soldiers. Ambrose at his best.

PlankWithANailIn

439 posts

156 months

Saturday 1st June 2013
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A good history book I can recommend for the Normandy campaign is "Six Armies in Normandy" by John Keegan. Covers D-Day through to the liberation of Paris.

Tango13

8,921 posts

183 months

Sunday 2nd June 2013
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Crafty_ said:
Overlord: D-Day and the battle for Normandy by Max Hastings. Antony Beevor has a book of the same name.
Having read both I suspect that some of Antony Beevors reseach consisted of reading Max Hastings book.