Jump to content

Best books about the Battle for Normandy ?


Recommended Posts

Hi,

im searching for books about the Battle for Normandy.

A book that is about the operational-warfare and describes some company or battalion sized battles (CM scale) in detail with maps, Order of battle and casuality reports.

Maybe AAR's from both sides would be nice.

Most books look like they tell you the hole story, the big picture but i would like to get some informations about the many small sized battles that took place there in 1944.

Can you recommend something ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 121
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

There are a lot of books but not many books what you ask for from operational level to coy level and detailed maps.

But a book who gives a very good picture and detailed maps is

http://www.amazon.com/RENDEZVOUS-DESTINY-HISTORY-AIRBORNE-DIVISION/dp/1568523726

And

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Panzers-Normandy-Then-Eric-Lefevre/dp/0900913290

will give you detailed information with maps

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here are some from my library:

- "Decision in Normandy" by Carlo D'Este = good overall view but a bit to Brit focused as few details of the US First Army fighting are given.

- The first few chapters of "Eisenhower's Lieutenants" by Russell Weigley - provides much of the detail missing from D'Este's book.

- (With reservations) "Six Armies in Normandy" by John Keegan = "interesting" organizational approach makes it read like a novel. But there are many pieces missing and some details are just incorrect. Keegan is a deeper version of Stephen Ambrose. He writes good prose and his conclusions are spot on but he plays fast and loose w/ the source material.

- "The Longest Day" by Cornelius Ryan = an early version of "oral history" centered historiagraphy with all the charm and faults of that approach. Not as polished as his masterful " A Bridge Too Far" but still valuable for the insightes offered by those who fought.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

for the US side, a good starter is "Beyond the Beachhead:the 29th infantry division in Normandy" by Joseph Balkoski. It follows the US 29th division from Omaha beach to Mortain, with a focus on company sized battles, but also gives you a good overview of the challenges faced by both sides in the Bocage.

for the CW, I would recommend Terry Copp's "Fields of Fire" on the Canadian Army in normandy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here are some from my library:

- "Decision in Normandy" by Carlo D'Este = good overall view but a bit to Brit focused as few details of the US First Army fighting are given.

- The first few chapters of "Eisenhower's Lieutenants" by Russell Weigley - provides much of the detail missing from D'Este's book.

- (With reservations) "Six Armies in Normandy" by John Keegan = "interesting" organizational approach makes it read like a novel. But there are many pieces missing and some details are just incorrect. Keegan is a deeper version of Stephen Ambrose. He writes good prose and his conclusions are spot on but he plays fast and loose w/ the source material.

- "The Longest Day" by Cornelius Ryan = an early version of "oral history" centered historiagraphy with all the charm and faults of that approach. Not as polished as his masterful " A Bridge Too Far" but still valuable for the insightes offered by those who fought.

There's a online copy of Martin Blumenson's Breakout and Pursuit:

http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-E-Breakout/index.html

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You might want to look at the Battleground Europe series published by Pen and Sword Books. Each concentrates in great detail on an individual battle, lots of maps, annotated photographs of the ground, then and now, pictures of troops in the action etc. etc.. At about £10 a pop its quite expensive but they are well worth the cash if one is seriously interested in the subject.

I bought several as pre-reads to a visit of the Normandy battlefields I made with my son a couple of years ago (we were also able to use them as guides when we were on the ground, which was a fascinating exercise). They really are rather good.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I few of my favorites are

"Currahee! - A Screaming Eagle in Normandy" by Donald R. Burgett ISBN 0-440-23630-4

"By Tank into Normandy" by Stuart Hill ISBN 0-304-36640-4

"Invasion 1944" by Hans Speidel

"The D-Day Companion" editor Jane Penrose ISBN 1-84176-779-4

"August 1944" by Robert A. Miller ISBN 0-446-35761-8

"Busting the Bocage: American Combined Arms Operations in France 6 June--31 July 1944" by Captain Michael D. Doubler electronic version here--http://www.cgsc.edu/carl/resources/csi/doubler/doubler.asp

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One other book that you might want to look at if you are interested in the specialist armour used on D-Day and beyond is Cracking Hitler's Atlantic Wall (Richard Anderson, published by Stackpole Books, ISBN 978-0-8117-0589-9). Expensive but very good and it laid to rest a few myths for me. I am indebted to JonS who recommended it to me last month.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You might want to look at the Battleground Europe series published by Pen and Sword Books. Each concentrates in great detail on an individual battle, lots of maps, annotated photographs of the ground, then and now, pictures of troops in the action etc. etc.. At about £10 a pop its quite expensive but they are well worth the cash if one is seriously interested in the subject.

I bought several as pre-reads to a visit of the Normandy battlefields I made with my son a couple of years ago (we were also able to use them as guides when we were on the ground, which was a fascinating exercise). They really are rather good.

I would certainly endorse that view, having used them extensively in Normandy myself.

In a similar vein are the Battlezone Normandy series edited by Simon Trew and published by Sutton Books. These are hardback, compared to the Battleground Europe series, and include more maps, mostly in colour, and lots of colour photos of the areas as seen today. Highly recommended.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

for the US side, a good starter is "Beyond the Beachhead:the 29th infantry division in Normandy" by Joseph Balkoski.

Also, both of Balkowski's book on the American beaches. Even though they are limited to just the first day of the invasion, they have the kind of detail that the OP is looking for.

Today this arrived in the mail. Haven't had a chance to do more than just thumb through it, but it looks great. Might not have the level of detail that is being asked for though.

Michael

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Two Sides of the Beach by Blandford was an interesting read.

But if you're trying to get ready for CMBN, then I highly suggest

Panzertaktik by Wolfgang Schneider, Fedorowicz Publishing.

With Chapter titles like:

Der Angriff (Offense)

Die Verteidigung (Defense)

Der Marsch (Unit Movements)

Die Aufklarung (Recon)

Die Fuhrung (C&C)

and

Die Zusammenarbeit (Combined Operations)

it makes for some interesting reading. Good pictures, and instructional maps as well.

Now if only I could play with all those guidelines in my head...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You could read Michael Reynolds book about the SS Panzer Corp in Normandy goes into a lot of detail Steel Inferno: I Panzer Corps in Normandy. Anthony Beevors book is the best I have read on Normandy and does give you a picture of the combat as well as the overall picture.

Or look on WW2Talk.com it's a site mainly about British Armed forces but has Battalion combat diaries and AARs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Watch out when reading Steel Inferno, Reynolds became a bit too captivated by the exploits of Hitlers 'finest' after researching "The Devils Adjutant", a worthy winner of the great book lousy title award.

I too have had my interest piqued by the forum discussions and want to know if there is one overall book that covers the campaign? My previous reading has been minimal and included the Osprey Campaign series and a youthful devouring of "Caen Anvil of Victory". Apart from talking to veterans and watching the Longest Day, that's about it, oh, and playing the St Lo boardgame.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I too have had my interest piqued by the forum discussions and want to know if there is one overall book that covers the campaign?

This book is focussed on US operations, but is very good. It is one volume of the Green Book series of official histories of the US Army in WW II. I don't know what the equivalent British history would be, nor the German. The CMH released the whole MTO/ETO series on CD-ROM several years back, and if you can obtain a copy of that, it's a real find as you will likely save quite a bit of money and it comes with all the maps, which recent reprints in paper lack.

Michael

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Cross Channel Attack is available, in full, legally, online at the Center for Military History.

The British equivalent is Victory in the West Volume I: Battle of Normandy, Major L. F. Ellis et al., 1962. AFAIK, this isn't available online. You can get a reprint here for 22quid.

The Canadian equivalent is Official History of the Canadian Army in the Second World War: Volume III. The Victory Campaign, The Operations in North-West Europe 1944-1945 appeared in print in 1960. This is pretty good, but again not available online ... except that a lot of the drafts and narratives that went into it are available from here and here

The German equivalent is Das Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg in about a gazillion volumes, that began publishing in the 1980s and are, AFAIK, still progressing. It's at a very high level though - in my (limited) experience it seldom goes below about corps level. It's expensive (and there are translations available), but very very good at what it covers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I too have had my interest piqued by the forum discussions and want to know if there is one overall book that covers the campaign?

Aside from the Official Histories, which tend to be a bit parochial, the ones I can think of that specifically address the entire campaign in one book are:

* Hastings "Overlord" (~1984) Product of it's time.

* D'Este "Decision in Normandy" (~1984?) Probably the pick of the bunch, despite some egregious bias and errors.

* Beevor "D-Day: The Battle for Normandy" (~2008?) Haven't read it, but sounds fairly poor.

* Wilmot "The Struggle for Europe" (~1954) definately a product of it's time. Also failry UK centric.

* Eversley B & Essame H "The Battle for Normandy" (~1983) fairly UK-centric, IIRC.

Feel free to rummage around here if you want a fuller insight into what I like :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One good read that hasn't been mentioned yet is SLA Marshall's "Night Drop", a series of after-action interviews which is widely used as source material by other historians, as well as for Marshall's better known works. Marshall has come under suspicion of course for making stuff up to fit his theories, so I make no guarantees on historical authenticity, but many of the stories are riveting. I remember reading the entire thing cover to cover one afternoon in the Ann Arbor public library.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Asking about books on Normandy is like asking about cat books. There's a million of them coming from all perspectives in all shapes and sizes stretch back over the last half century. After all, the old movie "The longest Day" was based on the old book "The Longest Day". Do you want a contemporary photos book or small unit actions, or strategic overview, or official unit histories, or German soldier stories... the list goes on and on.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

MikeyD, cat books about Normandy would be about the uber-kitties, right? Seriously, operational, within the strategic perspective, a Glantzian approach (but perhaps with a bit more input from the author) and if possible quite recent. Or, as some posters have suggested I will have to buy a number of volumes, read a very good account of the Paras fighting, not just Pegasus Bridge but the whole operation (sorry cannot remember the name) but would be a goldmine for scenario designers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


×
×
  • Create New...