D-Day 1944

June 6, 1944: the Allies launch the largest combined aerial and amphibious assault in modern history. Taking the Germans by surprise, they storm the heavily fortified defenses at the beachheads along the Normandy coast. The cost in allied lives is enormous, but the long-awaited Second Front is finally opened, marking the beginning of the end for Hitler’s Third Reich.

We are still trying to come to grips with the impact of what General Dwight Eisenhower called “this great and noble undertaking.” In D-Day 1944 twenty noted authors reassess the meanings and lessons of this monumental event and show why it retains such a prominent place in our national memory.

Drawing upon a vast array of newly available archival sources, these authors extend and revise our understanding of coalition warmaking, the controversy over opening the Second Front, the logistics of operations BOLERO and OVERLORD, air and naval operations, small unit training and combat, the unique contributions of “special forces” and of ULTRA and FORTITUDE intelligence, the war zone experience for French civilians, Eisenhower’s military and diplomatic leadership, and the comparative performances of the American, British, and Canadian forces in combat.

Combining crisp analysis with provocative insights, D-Day 1944 also features a foreword by prominent historian John Eisenhower, as well as valuable eyewitness commentaries by General Omar Bradley, Vice-Admiral Friedrich Ruge (German Navy), Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Don Whitehead, and George Marshall’s biographer Forrest Pogue. Together these essays remind us why a half century later D-Day remains one of the true defining moments of this epochal conflict.