D-Day: The Soldiers' Story

Description

'Vivid, graphic and moving' Mail on Sunday Book of the Year 'It has a wonderful immediacy and vitality - living history in every sense' Anthony Horowitz 'Fantastic' Dan Snow 'Compellingly authentic, revelatory and beautifully written. A gripping tour de force' Damien Lewis 'Stirring and unsettling in equal measure, this is history writing at its most powerful' Evening Standard Almost seventy-five years have passed since D-Day, the day of the greatest seaborne invasion in history. The outcome of the Second World War hung in the balance on that chill June morning. If Allied forces succeeded in gaining a foothold in northern France, the road to victory would be open. But if the Allies could be driven back into the sea, the invasion would be stalled for years, perhaps forever. An epic battle that involved 156,000 men, 7,000 ships and 20,000 armoured vehicles, the desperate struggle that unfolded on 6 June 1944 was, above all, a story of individual heroics - of men who were driven to keep fighting until the German defences were smashed and the precarious beachheads secured. Their authentic human story - Allied, German, French - has never fully been told. Giles Milton's bold new history narrates the day's events through the tales of survivors from all sides: the teenage Allied conscript, the crack German defender, the French resistance fighter. From the military architects at Supreme Headquarters to the young schoolboy in the Wehrmacht's bunkers, D-Day: The Soldiers' Story lays bare the absolute terror of those trapped in the frontline of Operation Overlord. It also gives voice to those hitherto unheard - the French butcher's daughter, the Panzer Commander's wife, the chauffeur to the General Staff. This vast canvas of human bravado reveals 'the longest day' as never before - less as a masterpiece of strategic planning than a day on which thousands of scared young men found themselves staring death in the face. It is drawn in its entirety from the raw, unvarnished experiences of those who were there.

Giles Milton is a writer and historian. He is the internationally bestselling author of eleven books including Nathaniel's Nutmeg, White Gold, Samurai William, Paradise Lost, Russian Roulette, D-Day: The Soldier's Story and Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. He has also written three novels and three children's books. His books have been translated into twenty-five languages. He lives in London.

Giles Milton is no ordinary writer . . . This is an exemplary account enlivened and enriched by the author's discreet and under-stated sense of common humanity - Sunday Herald With his deft storytelling skills, Milton has produced an action-packed and racy narrative that breathes new life into the words and deed of the extraordinary generation that found itself caught up in one of the defining days of western history ... it's terrific stuff - BBC History Magazine Praise for Giles Milton - : 'The master of narrative history' - Sunday Times A magnificent story, brilliantly told. Read it! - Anthony Horowitz 'An inspiration for those of us who believe that history can be exciting and entertaining' - The Times A magnificent piece of popular history - Independent on Sunday 'A great storyteller' - Sunday Express