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D-Day

The Battle for Normandy

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Brought to you by Penguin.

Antony Beevor's D-Day: The Battle for Normandy is the closest you will ever get to war - the taste, the smell, the noise and the fear.

The Normandy Landings that took place on D-Day involved by far the largest invasion fleet ever known. The scale of the undertaking was simply awesome. What followed them was some of the most cunning and ferocious fighting of the war, at times as savage as anything seen on the Eastern Front. As casualties mounted, so too did the tensions between the principal commanders on both sides. Meanwhile, French civilians caught in the middle of these battlefields or under Allied bombing endured terrible suffering. Even the joys of Liberation had their darker side.

Antony Beevor is the renowned author of Stalingrad, which won the Samuel Johnson Prize, the Wolfson Prize for History and the Hawthornden Prize for Literature, and Berlin, which received the first Longman-History Today Trustees' Award. His books have sold nearly four million copies.

'Antony Beevor's gripping narrative conveys the true experience of war.As near as possible to experiencing what it was like to be there. . . It is almost impossible for a reader not to get caught up in the excitement' Giles Foden, Guardian

'No writer can surpass Beevor in making sense of a crowded battlefield and in balancing the explanation of tactical manoeuvres with poignant flashes of human detail' Christopher Silvester, Daily Express


© Antony Beevor 2009 (P) Penguin Audio 2017

Armed Forces Europe France Great Britain Military Naval Forces War Imperialism

Critic reviews

A knockout reassessment of one of the Second World War's great set-piece battles. Swoops from the vicious close-quarter fighting in the hedgerows to the petrified French onlookers and onwards to the political leaders wrestling with monumental decisions
Beevor has succeeded brilliantly. D-Day can sit proudly alongside his other masterworks on Stalingrad and the fall of Berlin. Superbly brings the events of that summer to life again (Patrick Bishop)
As near as possible to experiencing what it was like to be there. . . It is almost impossible for a reader not to get caught up in the excitement (Giles Foden)
Impeccable, splendid, thoroughly researched and gripping. Beevor is master of narrative, expertly blending the grand sweep with the telling anecdote (Dominic Sandbrook)
Beevor can be credited with single-handedly transforming the reputation of military history (David Edgar)
His singular ability to make huge historical events accessible to a general audience recalls the golden age of British narrative history, whose giants include Gibbon, Macaulay and Carlyle (Boyd Tonkin)
No writer can surpass Beevor in making sense of a crowded battlefield and in balancing the explanation of tactical manoeuvres with poignant flashes of human detail (Christopher Silvester)
All stars
Most relevant
Really good. Overview of all military actions, peppered with stories of success, failure, bitter comedy and horror. Finished the book with a far greater understanding of the subject than I started with.

comprehensive account of d-day through to Paris.

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Thorough to a fault, with its endless mantra of regiment names, but at it's best when anecdotal or illuminating statistics. You will need a good map of Normandy to follow events or much will be fairly meaningless.

Thorough to a fault

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The success of this book is all in its small details and Cameron Stewart excels in bringing to life the story and the people.

Great book and even better nattoration. Excellent

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Really enjoyed this bool. Was get well read with good use of accents. Brilliant account with some strong truths we should all be told of. Captures the pain and suffering as well as the heroics and sacrifices made by so many.

Very well read account of a historic feat

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A very detailed and interesting account of D day and the events which followed. The regular use of quotes from various echelons of the military, and French civilian population, really helped to bring this all alive. Another classic by Antony Beevor.

Comprehensive and engrossing

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