Forgotten Voices of D-Day: A Powerful New History of the Normandy Landings in the Words of Those Who Were There

Description

A startling new oral history of the turning point of World War 2- D-Day 6 June 1944- the day Allied forces crossed the Channel and began fighting their way into Nazi-occupied Northwest Europe. Initiated by airborne units and covered by air and naval bombardment, the Normandy landings were the most ambitious combined airborne and amphibious assault ever attempted. Their success marked the beginning of the end for Nazi Germany. Drawing on thousands of hours of eyewitness testimony recorded by the Imperial War Museum, Forgotten Voices of D-Day tells the compelling story of this turning point in World War 2. Hearing from paratroopers and commandos, glider pilots and landing craft crewmen, airmen and naval personnel, we learn first-hand what it was like as men waited to go in, as they neared the beaches and drop zones, and as they landed and met the enemy. Accounts range from memories of the daring capture of 'Pegasus' bridge by British glider-bourn troops to recollections of brutal fighting as the assault forces stormed the beaches. Featuring a mass of previously unpublished material, Forgotten Voices of D-Day is a powerful and important new record of a defining moment in modern history.

A graduate of Cambridge and Edinburgh Universities and a former Alistair Horne Fellow at St Antony's College, Oxford, Roderick Bailey is a historian attached to the Imperial War Museum. He is the author of Forgotten Voices of D-Day, Forgotten Voices of the Secret War, which was a Sunday Times Top Ten bestseller, and the acclaimed The Wildest Province- SOE in the Land of the Eagle.

The most recent of Ebury's admirable series ... a wonderful selection of first-hand accounts of D-Day by British servicemen -- Richard Holmes * Evening Standard * Incomparable. The voices speak with utter immediacy of fear, determination, bewilderment, indifference, and unmistakable courage * Spectator * Excellent ... An exciting read * Family History Monthly *