D Day Normandy Landing Beaches

The story behind D-Day begins in 1939 when Nazi Germany, led by Adolf Hitler, attacked Poland and ignited World War Two. The following year, the Germans occupied France and Western Europe and launched a vicious air war against Britain. In 1941, they invaded the Soviet Union. Seemingly unstoppable, the Nazis now held virtually all of Europe. They imposed a ruthless system of control and unleashed the horror of the Holocaust. However, by 1943, the tide had begun to turn in favor of the Allies, the forces opposed to Germany. In the east, despite huge losses, the Soviets began to force the Germans back.

This spectacular, large format, full color, new book is quite simply the most impressive book of its type we have seen. Packed with over 200 photographs, maps and charts, the book is divided into the sectors associated with the Normandy landings in 1944. What's more it is extremely reasonably priced.

An extensive traveler’s guide to the French region’s World War II historical sites and everything else you need to know about the area. Already the best-selling English-language guide to the area, universally known as “the Bible,” this is the sixth, completely revised, up-to-date, much expanded edition of the Definitive Guide to the D-Day Normandy Landing Beaches. The third in the Holts’ important series of Battlefield Guides (following the Somme and the Ypres Salient), it employs the same, highly acclaimed formula. Once again, the cold facts are interlaced with anecdotes of bravery, humor, sadness, and humanity. This new edition now contains all the landing beaches: Juno, Sword, Gold, Omaha, Utah; all the airborne operations: British and American two approach routes; six timed and measured itineraries; 21 in-text itinerary maps, battle maps & diagrams; and approximately 400 recommended sites within the D-Day planned area of advance, all with photos, each with latitude & longitude references (New for this Edition). It features over 400 colored pictures and 352 pages of memorials, museums, batteries, bunkers, landing fields, historical background to the landings, the plans and what actually happened, information about Allied and German war graves, veterans’ associations, and other commemorative associations. It also has Normandy tourist information about where to stay and to eat, and information about historical figures such as recipients of the Victoria Cross and the Medal of Honor, poets, photographers, and more.

"This is probably the best book ever written about Omaha Beach." --Bill Stone, Stone & Stone Second World War Books "Balkoski's depiction of 'Bloody Omaha' is the literary accompaniment to the white-knuckle Omaha Beach scene that opens Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan." -- John Hillen, New York Post In this unforgettable narrative of D-Day, Joseph Balkoski describes the minute-by-minute combat as it unfolded on Omaha Beach, allowing soldiers to speak for themselves as they recall their attempts to maneuver bombers through heavy cloud cover, the claustrophobic terror aboard transports, and the relentless fire that greeted them on the beach. Equal parts oral history and meticulous reconstruction, Omaha Beach is the closest the modern reader can get to experiencing the Normandy landings firsthand.

This book tells the story of Operation Overlord, the largest and most meticulously planned seaborne invasion in the history of warfare. As dawn broke on 6 June 1944, thousands of Allied soldiers - American, British, Canadian, Free French and Polish - hit the Normandy beaches and stormed the German defenses of the Atlantic Wall. By Midnight, over 150,000 troops had been safely landed, and the ling push towards Berlin and the final defeat of the Third Reich had begun. Including useful maps with troop movements, as well as an index of the armies, battles, campaigns and commanders, Fighting Them on the Beaches is a brilliant guide to this historic battle which turned the tide against Adolf Hitler.

A highly illustrated and detailed study of the Gold and Juno Beaches Landings Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Normandy, was the greatest sea-borne military operation in history. At the heart of the invasion and key to its success were the landings of British 50th Division on Gold Beach and Canadian 3rd Division on Juno Beach. Not only did they provide the vital link between the landings of British 3rd Division on Sword Beach and the Americans to the west on Omaha, they would be crucial to the securing of the beachhead and the drive inland to Bayeux and Caen. In the fourth D-Day volume Ken Ford details the assault that began the liberation of Nazi-occupied Europe.

Omaha was the make-or-break Allied beach on D-Day—in (perhaps) the make-or-break campaign of World War II. If American soldiers couldn’t gain a foothold there, then D-Day was unlikely to succeed. On June 6, 1944, U.S. troops on Omaha suffered the worst casualties of any of the five Allied invasion beaches—so many casualties, and so much tactical difficulty, that Omaha almost didn’t succeed. One big reason why Americans gained a foothold on Omaha was Gen. Norman “Dutch” Cota. A graduate of the West Point class of 1917 (alongside famous classmates Matthew Ridgway, Mark Clark, and Lightning Joe Collins), Norm Cota played football with Dwight Eisenhower, who graduated two years earlier. From March 1941 to February 1943, Cota served with the famous 1st Infantry Division, the Big Red One, as division intelligence officer, plans/training officer, and finally chief of staff. He performed so well in the North Africa campaign that he was sent to England to help plan D-Day. After laying the tactical groundwork for the amphibious landings, Cota was made assistant division commander of the 29th Infantry Division. On the eve of D-Day, he told his men, “You’re going to find confusion. The landing craft aren’t going in on schedule, and people are going to be landed in the wrong place. Some won’t be landed at all. . . . We must improvise, carry on, not lose our heads.” On June 6, 1944, under heavy fire, Cota landed with the second wave of the 29th Infantry Division on Omaha Beach, about an hour after the start of the invasion. He personally rallied the survivors of the landings and led the opening of one of the first exits off Omaha. Cota seemed to be everywhere that day. Coming upon a group of Rangers, the general told them, “Rangers, lead the way” (hence the Rangers’ motto). He is also known for saying, “Gentlemen, we are being killed on the beaches. Let us go inland and be killed.” And, to a captain uncertain how to proceed: “I’ll tell you what, captain.You and your men start shooting at them. I’ll take a squad of men, and you and your men watch carefully. I’ll show you how to take a house with Germans in it.” Having demonstrated the task, Cota asked the officer, “Do you understand? Do you know how to do it now? . . . I won’t be around to do it for you again. I can’t do it for everybody.” Great quips—which American military history will always remember and which show the character, in every sense, of Dutch Cota. Cota was a fighter—a fighting general, a D-Day general—and his contribution to D-Day will remain his rallying of demoralized troops and his blazing the trail toward the breakout and victory on Omaha. Ted Roosevelt Jr., who landed at Utah Beach, has always received credit as the D-Day general (like Cota, Roosevelt also demanded that he land on D-Day—and then died of a heart attack a month later), but Cota is the hero-general of the day, having landed early on D-Day on bloody Omaha. Portrayed by Robert Mitchum in the grand D-Day film The Longest Day, Cota has not yet received his due—and there’s a campaign now afoot to award him a belated Medal of Honor. His story cries out to be told. Now, with the cooperation of the Cota family, Noel F. Mehlo Jr. tells the compelling story Dutch Cota on Omaha Beach, revealing new information and never-before-seen photos.