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DDay The Battle for Normandy Antony Beevor Photos 9780670887033 Books

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DDay The Battle for Normandy Antony Beevor Photos 9780670887033 Books

[Expletive deleted], Beevor is a good writer. How I envy him. His recounting of Stalingrad got into the dirty details, both at the top and lower echelons. I admire him not just for the research that went into this book, and not just for his ability to write in such a way that the readers attention is in the thrall of that prose, but because of Beevor's even handedness. He treats the Allies, the Germans, and the French will equal candor.

The ability to "take the role of the other," as a sociologist described it, may seem like a small thing. Anybody can do it. Yet even military historians have shown a lack of that ability.

The late Stephen Ambrose did a book on D-Day too, noting that the French civilians of Normandy and Brittany were more sullen that the civilians of the South. He offered no explanation and left us with the assumption that there are regional differences in national character.

But the fact is that the French civilians of northern France had plenty of reasons to be resentful, as well as many reasons to be grateful. Except for the French resistance (made up of fractious elements, much like the Syrian insurgents today), the French had lived in reasonable comfort among the Germans, whose orders regarding public behavior were strictly enforced. And, after all, we had just bombed the hell out of Normandy. The critical city of Caen had been literally flattened by bombs and artillery to no particular tactical advantage. Crops were devastated and the fields dotted with the rotting carcases of cows.

And by the time the Allies reached Paris -- well, let me quote Beevor.

"The Petit Palais had been taken over, with a large sign announcing the distribution of free condoms to U.S. troops. In Pigalle, rapidly dubbed 'Pig Alley' by GIs, prostitutes were coping with over 10,000 men a day. The French were also deeply shocked to see U.S. Army soldiers lying drunk on the pavements of the Place Vendôme. The contrast with off-duty German troops, who had been forbidden to even smoke in the street, could hardly have been greater."

Separate chapters are given over to the attempt to assassinate Hitler and to the liberation of Paris. That second one, the liberation, would have been hilarious if it hadn't been so serious and at times lethal. You have the U.S. Army arguing with the organized and uniformed French troops for the honor of being the first to enter Paris. Then you had the French generals, LeClerc and DeGaulle, arguing with each other. Then you had the civilian French resistance arguing with the uniformed French army. Then you had the leaders of the factions within the resistance -- the nationalists, the communists, the marginal groups -- arguing with each other. Although in retrospect it may seem unlikely, DeGaulle was the most steady and reasonable figure. That will give you some idea of how complicated this strictly symbolic issue was.

I won't go on about it. Most other reviewers have hit the high spots of the book and of Beevor's writing skills. Beevor knows what he's talking about and he tells the story well.


Tags : D-Day: The Battle for Normandy [Antony Beevor, Photos] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <B>The definitive account of the Normandy invasion by the bestselling author of <I>Stalingrad</I> and <I>The Fall of Berlin 1945</I></B><BR><BR> From critically acclaimed world historian,Antony Beevor, Photos,D-Day: The Battle for Normandy,Penguin,067088703X,General,History

DDay The Battle for Normandy Antony Beevor Photos 9780670887033 Books Reviews

This work takes the reader from the night before the invasion to the liberation of Paris.

I learned much about the topic I hadn't read before. The work which is refreshingly objective from each side of the conflict, part of the new genre' of works that focus on what happened rather than try to instruct the reader in the good or evil of either side. We are allowed to make those judgments ourselves.

Beevor is easy to read, informative, and if you can say this about war, entertaining. One really grasps how difficult the German command structure had become by June 1944 and how it was further complicated by the attempt on Hitler's life in July. Units on a map are not necessarily a full strength well supplied unit in the field, but that is hard to see from OKW. Meanwhile the shortcomings of the Allied leaders are not overlooked by some margin, particularly in this authors opinion that of Montgomery.

I drop a star because I felt he laid it on a little heavy about Montgomery's personality defects, like there were no others with similar issues that rise to that level of command.
He mentions some of the less perfect aspects of the other commanders, but seems to single out Monty for particular attention and it becomes distracting. Perhaps that was the truth.

At least we no longer treat the Allies as angelic hero's we approach on our knees and the Germans as a faceless mass of evil.
This review is specific to "D-Day The Decision to Launch A Selection from D-Day The Battle for Normandy (Penguin Tracks)" . This title is only a very short excerpt of the main book. It's 33 pages long (the full book is over 600 pages). This is deceptive as when you search for this title this is the "sponsored listing" that comes up. When you click to the edition it shows a really low price but it actually takes you to a 33 page excerpt of the book for the low price.
[Expletive deleted], Beevor is a good writer. How I envy him. His recounting of Stalingrad got into the dirty details, both at the top and lower echelons. I admire him not just for the research that went into this book, and not just for his ability to write in such a way that the readers attention is in the thrall of that prose, but because of Beevor's even handedness. He treats the Allies, the Germans, and the French will equal candor.

The ability to "take the role of the other," as a sociologist described it, may seem like a small thing. Anybody can do it. Yet even military historians have shown a lack of that ability.

The late Stephen Ambrose did a book on D-Day too, noting that the French civilians of Normandy and Brittany were more sullen that the civilians of the South. He offered no explanation and left us with the assumption that there are regional differences in national character.

But the fact is that the French civilians of northern France had plenty of reasons to be resentful, as well as many reasons to be grateful. Except for the French resistance (made up of fractious elements, much like the Syrian insurgents today), the French had lived in reasonable comfort among the Germans, whose orders regarding public behavior were strictly enforced. And, after all, we had just bombed the hell out of Normandy. The critical city of Caen had been literally flattened by bombs and artillery to no particular tactical advantage. Crops were devastated and the fields dotted with the rotting carcases of cows.

And by the time the Allies reached Paris -- well, let me quote Beevor.

"The Petit Palais had been taken over, with a large sign announcing the distribution of free condoms to U.S. troops. In Pigalle, rapidly dubbed 'Pig Alley' by GIs, prostitutes were coping with over 10,000 men a day. The French were also deeply shocked to see U.S. Army soldiers lying drunk on the pavements of the Place Vendôme. The contrast with off-duty German troops, who had been forbidden to even smoke in the street, could hardly have been greater."

Separate chapters are given over to the attempt to assassinate Hitler and to the liberation of Paris. That second one, the liberation, would have been hilarious if it hadn't been so serious and at times lethal. You have the U.S. Army arguing with the organized and uniformed French troops for the honor of being the first to enter Paris. Then you had the French generals, LeClerc and DeGaulle, arguing with each other. Then you had the civilian French resistance arguing with the uniformed French army. Then you had the leaders of the factions within the resistance -- the nationalists, the communists, the marginal groups -- arguing with each other. Although in retrospect it may seem unlikely, DeGaulle was the most steady and reasonable figure. That will give you some idea of how complicated this strictly symbolic issue was.

I won't go on about it. Most other reviewers have hit the high spots of the book and of Beevor's writing skills. Beevor knows what he's talking about and he tells the story well.