Overlord

Excellent unbiased account of Overlord

Great audiobook. Well read. It would be great if you could include a PDFs of the campaign maps.

7 of 7 people found this review helpful

Top author, top performance

Hastings is a fantastic author, and the readers for his books on audible are generally good considering the usual monotonous treatment history audiobooks in particular are often given. Here though the reader goes above and beyond and really brings life to the stories that Hastings tells so well. Highly recommended, and more of the same please!

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

A True Masterpiece

For anyone with even a passing interest in military history and especially World War 2 this is a must have in their library. From a truly remarkable historian who has written numerous well rounded and informative narrative this look at one of the pivotal moments of WW2 is fantastic.

With a well balanced look from both an Axis and Allies viewpoint the book is raised to the highest heights possible by the narration of Barnaby Edwards. With an easy to listen to voice and the ability to keep me engaged on a long drive without losing focus only adds to this great piece of historical writing.

6 of 7 people found this review helpful

Max Hastings is a credit to history

If you could sum up Overlord in three words, what would they be?

Informative, horrifying, brilliant.

What did you like best about this story?

Max Hastings brings to life what happened on those terrible days in Normandy. A very informative book on D Day and after. A book I just kept on reading to the end.

6 of 7 people found this review helpful

Not For Beginners

What did you like most about Overlord?

It was very informative and in depth with regards to D-Day and Overlord.

What does Barnaby Edwards bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

The ability to listen while driving the car. Reading a book while driving is frowned upon in the UK. Narration was very good.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No, it was too heavy for one sitting, plus I needed to research some of the things that were talked about and work out the acronyms that were mentioned, before proceeding.

Any additional comments?

I felt I learned a lot but there seemed to be quite a high degree of assumed knowledge of military acronyms, types of weapons, tank types and generally in depth knowledge of WWII. In hindsight I think a book that details D-Day at a higher level would have been a good pre-read before embarking on this one.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

A Remarkable Listen

What did you like most about Overlord?

It give an incredible overview of the thoughts and opinions of those brave men who stormed the beaches on D-Day

What did you like best about this story?

The mix of personal accounts combined with Army and Battalion level detail

What does Barnaby Edwards bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

His richness of tone, ability to with between accents and dialects, and his reading style, all added to the enjoyment of the listen

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Brave Men, Doing the Impossible

Any additional comments?

Simply a stunning book, mace into a stunning listening experience

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

A fantastic account.

A fascinating account of the turning point of the Second World War. Gripping and shocking in equal measure. Highly recommended.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

SEVENTY YEARS ON WE CAN SEE MORE CLEARLY

What made the experience of listening to Overlord the most enjoyable?

The author's complete mastery of his material, and his ability seamlessly to blend accounts of grand strategy, tactics, the hundreds of small scale engagements that go to make up a battle like this, with personal anecdotage from both sides. It is impossible for a book or a film to recreate the experience of war, but this one comes as near to doing it as anything else I have read.

What did you like best about this story?

What I relished most about the story was the unflinching way it faced unpleasant facts: incompetent commanders, cowardly officers, men being urged into battle at gunpoint, mistakes that cost lives and war crimes committed by soldiers driven past normal rationalism by the hideousness of war. As George Orwell remarked, autobiography is only to be trusted if it reveals something disgraceful: the same is true of history, and on this showing this is a thoroughly truthful book.

Have you listened to any of Barnaby Edwards’s other performances? How does this one compare?

Not that I am aware: but the power of Hastings's writing was very well served by this narrator. His level, well modulated and well proportioned reading added greatly to the book's impact. The truly dreadful thing about war is that it eventually makes the horrific seem everyday, and Mr Edwards's reading helped to emphasise that fact.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No, for the simple reason that to do so would have been emotionally overwhelming. I listened to the account of the battle the way it was fought, day by day.

Any additional comments?

Everything I know about Max Hastings suggests that if I met him I would find him a very difficult man indeed to like. Nonetheless, in his own field as a military historian, there are very few to touch him.

6 of 8 people found this review helpful

Excellent book. Well read

Very good account of D day from all sides. A balanced account showing the difficulties the allies faced. Not afraid to show the shortcomings of allied troops and equipment compared to some other accounts. A good balance of soldier accounts and the overall strategy of the invasion

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

An excellent account of the Battle for Normandy.

“Overlord” is a history of the Allied campaign in Normandy from June to August 1944. Hastings combines description and analysis of the campaign at the strategic (corps, army and division) level with vivid personal accounts of combat by soldiers from both sides.

For me one outstanding feature of this book was Hastings unbiased appraisal of the performance of the Allied soldiery. British and American soldiers were citizen-soldiers from liberal democracies. These men regarded war service as an unpleasant duty and, in combat, displayed a lack of initiative. The Germans, by contrast, came from a totalitarian state that placed a high value on a warrior ethos. German soldiers in Normandy were superior to Allied troops in fieldcraft, initiative and overall fighting ability. German weaponry was also superior. Despite their ultimate defeat in Normandy the soldiers of the Wehrmacht gained a psychological dominance of the battlefield in the West that was to last to the end of the war.

Nonetheless the Allies finally triumphed after a bitter, hard-fought campaign. Despite their limitations Allied soldiers fought doggedly to achieve ultimate victory. Hastings shows that they were aided by German strategic incompetence, Allied air superiority and massive Allied superiority in logistical resupply.

The book is very well read by Barnaby Edwards.

All in all, an excellent audiobook.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful