With essays from leading names in military history, this new book re-examines the crucial issues and debates of the D-Day campaign.
It tackles a range of core topics, placing them in their current historiographical context, to present new and sometimes revisionist interpretations of key issues, such as the image of the Allied armies compared with the Germans, the role of air power, and the lessons learned by the military from their operations.
As the Second World War is increasingly becoming a field of revisionism, this book sits squarely within growing debates, shedding new light on topics and bringing current thinking from our leading military and strategic historians to a wider audience.
This book will be of great interest to students of the Second World War, and of military and strategic studies in general.
Introduction John Buckley 1. The 21st Army Group in Normandy: Towards a new balance sheet Terry Copp 2. The German perspective Mungo Melvin 3. The German commanders on D-Day Marc Hansen 4. Culture, controversy, Caen and Cherbourg: The first week of the battle Stephen Badsey 5. American tactical innovation in Normandy 1944 Nigel de Lee 6. British armoured operations in Normandy, June-August 1944 John Buckley 7. Operation BLUECOAT - A victory ignored? Ian Daglish 8. ‘The Black Day Unrealised’: Operation TOTALIZE and the problems of translating tactical success into a decisive breakout Stephen A. Hart 9. Dead cows and Tigers: Some aspects of the experience of the British soldier in Normandy 1944 Gary Sheffield 10. The Luftwaffe in Normandy James S. Corum 11. Arthur Tedder and the Transportation Plans Vincent Orange 12. Caen: The Martyred City Peter Gray 13. Deception and the Planning of D-Day Kathryn Barbier 14. Intelligence and OVERLORD: A snapshot from 6 June 1944 John Ferris 15. Reconstructing D-Day: The sixth of June 1944 and British documentary films Michael Paris 16. D-Day in Hollywood motion pictures: A brief history of changing perceptions of war Carsten Hennig Index
Biography
John Buckley