The Cover Up At Omaha Beach

“Simply breathtaking. It doesn’t simply offer alternatives to the history of Pointe du Hoc, it blows them away . . . for fans of anything WWII [or] D-Day.”—War History Online The Rangers mission was clear. They were to lead the assault on Omaha Beach and breakout inland. Simultaneously other Ranger units would scale the cliffs at Pointe du Hoc to destroy the “huge” gun battery there and thus protect the invasion fleet from being targeted. But was the Pointe du Hoc mission actually necessary? Why did the Allies plan and execute an attack on a gun battery which they knew in advance contained no field guns? And more importantly, why did they ignore the position at Maisy that did? Using personal interviews with the surviving Rangers who fought on the beach and at Pointe du Hoc, Gary Sterne has made a painstaking study of what the Allies actually knew in advance of D-day and about the Maisy Battery. Maps, orders and assault plans have been found in the UK, German and US archives, many of which were not released from the Top Secrecy Act for 60+ years. Radio communications have been found from the Rangers as they advanced inland towards Maisy and intelligence evaluations made by the RAF of bombing missions directed at the site have now been released. All these combine to make this one of the most up-to-date references on the subject. “A gritty first hand-yard by yard account of what combat was like . . . will forever change the way you think about the battle for Omaha Beach and the importance of Pointe du Hoc.”—The Armourer

A follow-up to the New York Times-bestselling The Cover-Up at Omaha Beach. “The second volume of the epic study breaks new ground.” —Firetrench Gary Sterne, a keen collector of militaria and co-founder of The Armourer and Skirmish magazines, has always been fascinated by the D-Day landings. In particular he was intrigued by the lack of precise information relating to the mystery of the “missing guns” of Pointe du Hoc. His research led to the finding of a map which indicated the position of an “unknown” German gun position buried in the village of Maisy. The rediscovery of the Maisy Batteries made headline news around the world and his bestselling book The Cover-Up at Omaha Beach subsequently changed the history of the Omaha sector and made many start to question the Rangers’ Pointe du Hoc mission. The Maisy site is now one of the major Normandy D-Day attractions. For the first time ever this follow-up book now offers complete Rangers history for the seven months prior to D-Day and does so using period documents, many of which have only recently been released from TOP SECRET status in U.S. Archives. The author fills in the gaps that many have only guessed at concerning the Rangers’ real missions on D-Day, he explains why a battalion commander was removed hours before the landings, why the Rangers were not briefed on their actual D-Day missions and the extraordinary role that Lt. Col. Rudder played at Pointe du Hoc. This book is a historical game-changer that pulls no punches.

The first volume of a new series dedicated to exploring iconic moments in World War II history, Omaha Beach on D-Day is a fresh and captivating new take on one of the most important moments in World War II: the Allied forces storming the beach at Normandy. The photograph at the heart of this book is Robert Capa's world-famous shot of the Allied landing in 1944, and the authors of this remarkable work have gathered interviews, testimonials, contact sheets, and over forty pages of photographic archives from the Magnum Photos agency to fill in the history behind a single moment, captured forever on film.

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

The Allied victory at Omaha Beach was a costly one. A direct infantry assault against a defense that was years in the making, undertaken in daylight following a mere thirty-minute bombardment, the attack had neither the advantage of tactical surprise nor that of overwhelming firepower. American forces were forced to improvise under enemy fire, and although they were ultimately victorious, they suffered devastating casualties. Why did the Allies embark on an attack with so many disadvantages? Making extensive use of primary sources, Adrian Lewis traces the development of the doctrine behind the plan for the invasion of Normandy to explain why the battles for the beaches were fought as they were. Although blame for the Omaha Beach disaster has traditionally been placed on tactical leaders at the battle site, Lewis argues that the real responsibility lay at the higher levels of operations and strategy planning. Ignoring lessons learned in the Mediterranean and Pacific theaters, British and American military leaders employed a hybrid doctrine of amphibious warfare at Normandy, one that failed to maximize the advantages of either British or U.S. doctrine. Had Allied forces at the other landing sites faced German forces of the quality and quantity of those at Omaha Beach, Lewis says, they too would have suffered heavy casualties and faced the prospect of defeat.

Volume 1 of this two-part work puts the reader firmly into the footsteps of the 2nd and 5th Rangers as they arrive in England in 1943. It follows them during their intensive training with the Commandos and the Royal Navy as they head towards D-Day - including cliff climbing, assault landings and the Slapton Sands 'dress rehearsal'. The orders given to the Rangers, along with dozens of aerial reconnaissance photographs of Omaha Beach, Pointe et Raz de la Percée, Pointe du Hoc and Maisy - as well as French Resistance reports - detail the information given to the Rangers' commander Lt. Col. Rudder. Shown in chronological order and in their original format, many of the documents are still marked TOP SECRET and were only recently released after nearly 70 years. The author fills in the gaps that many have only guessed at concerning the Rangers' real missions on D-Day, and in Volume 2 he explains why a battalion commander was removed whilst onboard ship prior to the landings, why the individual Rangers were not briefed on all of their D-Day objectives - as well as the extraordinary role that Lt. Col. Rudder played at Pointe du Hoc. Described by US historians as 'one of the most detailed works about the D-Day Rangers ever written', this work is the culmination of four years of detailed research within the US Archives and backed up by evidence uncovered in Normandy. It is a real historical game-changer that pulls no punches as it challenges conventional studies of one of the most iconic battles of WWII. There can be no doubt that this work will change the way that historians view the Pointe du Hoc battle from now on.

A New York Times bestseller! The untold story of what really happened on D-Day. The Rangers’ mission was clear. They were to lead the assault on Omaha Beach and break out inland. Simultaneously, other Ranger units would scale the cliffs at Pointe du Hoc to destroy the ostensibly huge gun battery there and thus protect the invasion fleet from being targeted. But was the Pointe du Hoc mission actually necessary? Why did the Allies plan and execute an attack on a gun battery that they knew in advance contained no field guns? And more importantly, why did they ignore the position at Maisy that did? Using personal interviews with the surviving Rangers who fought on the beach and at Pointe du Hoc, The Cover-Up at Omaha Beach presents exceptionally detailed new research that takes the reader into the middle of the action with the Rangers. Gary Sterne has made a painstaking study of what the Allies actually knew in advance of D-Day, including what was known about Maisy Battery. Maps, orders, and assault plans have been found in American, British, and German archives, many of which have only recently been released after staying classified for more than sixty years. Radio communications of the Rangers as they advanced inland have been found, and Royal Air Force intelligence evaluations of bombing missions directed at the site have now been released. All of this combines to make The Cover-Up at Omaha Beach one of the most up-to-date references on the subject. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome, medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

Normandy depicts the planning and execution of Operation Overlord in 96 full-color pages. The initial paratrooper assault is shown, as well as the storming of the five D-Day beaches: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword. But the story does not end there. Once the Allies got ashore, they had to stay ashore. The Germans made every effort to push them back into the sea. This book depicts the such key events in the Allied liberation of Europe as: 1. Construction of the Mulberry Harbors, two giant artificial harbors built in England and floated across the English Channel so that troops, vehicles, and supplies could be offloaded across the invasion beaches.2. The Capture of Cherbourg, the nearest French port, against a labyrinth of Gennan pillboxes.3. The American fight through the heavy bocage (hedgerow country) to take the vital town of Saint-Lô.4. The British-Canadian struggle for the city of Caen against the “Hitler Youth Division,” made up of 23,000 seventeen- and eighteen-year-old Nazi fanatics.5. The breakout of General Patton’s Third Army and the desperate US 30th Division’s defense of Mortaine.6. The Falaise Pocket, known as the “Killing Ground, ” where the remnants of two German armies were trapped and bombed and shelled into submission. The slaughter was so great that 5,000 Germans were buried in one mass grave. 7. The Liberation of Paris, led by the 2nd Free French Armored Division, which had been fighting for four long years with this goal in mind.