Book List: D-Day in Non-Fiction

This book is concerned with the two great cross-channel invasions: The Conquest of 1066 and Operation Overlord, the invasion of Europe of 1944

A noir narrative written with the intensity and power of poetry, The Long Take is one of the most remarkable – and unclassifiable – books of recent years.

Walker is a D-Day veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder; he can’t return home to rural Nova Scotia, and looks instead to the city for freedom, anonymity and repair. As he moves from New York to Los Angeles and San Francisco we witness a crucial period of fracture in American history, one that also allowed noir to flourish. The Dream had gone sour but – as those dark, classic movies made clear – the country needed outsiders to study and dramatise its new anxieties.

While Walker tries to piece his life together, America is beginning to come apart: deeply paranoid, doubting its own certainties, riven by social and racial division, spiralling corruption and the collapse of the inner cities. The Long Take is about a good man, brutalised by war, haunted by violence and apparently doomed to return to it – yet resolved to find kindness again, in the world and in himself.

Combining authoritative text and bold explanatory graphics ‘The World War II Book’ explores the causes, key events, and lasting consequences of the Second World War.

Using the original, graphic-led approach of the series, entries profile more than 90 of the key ideas and events during and surrounding the conflict – from the rise of Hitler and Fascism in the 1930s to Pearl Harbour, the D-Day landings, and the bombing of Hiroshima to the founding of the State of Israel in 1948.

Sarah Lewendel, a Jewish woman originally from Poland, disappeared in the vortex of the Nazi extermination machine on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Her son has lived with this tragedy for over 65 years and has carefully reconstructed the history of the Holocaust in Provence, the Vaucluse, and its main city, Avignon.

In the South of France, the most memorable event of the Second World War was the sea and airborne invasion of 15th August 1944.

Perhaps because it went relatively smoothly, this ‘Second D-Day’ was soon relegated to the back pages of history. Operation Dragoon and the liberation is however only a small part of the story.

The arrival of the Allies was preceded by years of suffering and sacrifice under Hitléro-Vichyssois oppression. Provençale people still struggle to come to terms with the painful past of split-allegiances and empty stomachs which epitomize les années noirs (the dark years).

For those of us who didn’t live through World War II, it appears in our mind’s eye in black and white. Images of the Blitz, of the D-Day landings at Normandy, the liberation of Paris, the fall of Berlin – all come to us in shadowy greys and blacks, the lack of colour simultaneously heightening their drama and distancing them from us. Seen in black and white, World War II seems wholly of the past, a story that’s being told much more than an experienced that men and women actually lived through. This book will help change that. Reproducing seventy-eight rare full-colour images from the archives of the Imperial War Museums, it shows us a new – or at least long-forgotten – World War II.

Ross Kemp retells the most daring British special operations of World War II, from the world’s first aircraft carrier strike on an enemy fleet in November 1940 to the critically important seizure by British paratroopers of Pegasus Bridge, the first engagement of D-Day in June 1945.

This is a study of the Second World War, covering the period between D-Day and VE Day and focusing on the day-to-day experiences of the British and Canadian troops involved in the campaign to liberate Europe.

From the bestselling author of Normandy ’44 and Sicily ’43 comes the untold story of the Sherwood Rangers. It took a certain type of courage to serve in a tank in World War Two.

Encased in steel, surrounded by highly explosive shells, a big and slow-moving target, every crew member was utterly vulnerable to enemy attack from all sides. Living – and dying – in a tank was a brutal way to fight a war.

The Sherwood Rangers were one of the great tank regiments. They had learned their trade the hard way, under the burning sun of North Africa, on the battlefields of El Alamein and Alam el Halfa. By the time they landed on Gold Beach on D-Day, they were toughened by experience and ready for combat.

D-Day, 6 June 1944, the turning point of the Second World War, was a victory of arms. But it was also a triumph for a different kind of operation: one of deceit, aimed at convincing the Nazis that Calais and Norway, not Normandy, were the targets of the 150,000-strong invasion force.

The gripping and heroic story of D-Day from the Number One bestselling author of BAND OF BROTHERS

Published to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Normandy Landings, this volume brings together the perspectives & opinions of respected military historians.

Each chapter focuses on a different aspect of the landings, from the preparations to the fighting at the beachheads.

‘War Report’, the landmark BBC radio program, first broadcast after the nine o-clock news on D-Day, 6 June 1944, provided an almost-daily chronicle to millions of listeners of the final year of World War II.

A team of BBC reporters, including Chester Wilmot, Frank Gillard, Wynford Vaughan Thomas, and Richard Dimbleby, trained and were embedded with British troops, a first in war reporting: they landed side by side with soldiers, in gliders, by parachute, in assault-craft, talking into portable recording machines to ‘tell it as it was’.

70 years after the invasion of Normandy, the dispatches of ‘War Report’ collected here provide a unique and visceral account of Allied efforts to liberate Europe and end the war.

On 6th June 1944 Britain woke up to a profound silence. Overnight, 160,000 Allied troops had vanished and an eerie emptiness settled over the country. The majority of those men would never return.

This is the story of that extraordinary 24 hours. Using a wealth of first person testimonies, renowned historian Max Arthur recounts a remarkable new oral history of D-Day, beginning with the two years leading up to the silent day which saw the UK transformed by the arrival of thousands of American and Canadian troops.

This manual describes the development, construction and use of a wide range of innovative machines, structures and systems, explaining their uses on D-Day and after, and revealing how they contributed to the success of ‘Overlord’.

Seventy years ago, on 6 June 1944, a great Allied Armada landed on the coast of Normandy. The invasion force launched on D-Day was a size never seen before and never likely to be seen again. In this book, we hear from the men and women who were involved in the assault; those who risked their lives for a better future.

John Hunter, Parachute Regiment, Northants. Seventy years ago, on 6 June 1944, a great Allied Armada landed on the coast of Normandy. The invasion force launched on D-Day was a size never seen before and never likely to be seen again. 150,000 soldiers, more than 6000 ships and 11,000 combat aircraft took part in the assault. The success of that attack led 11 months later to the final liberation of Europe from a ruthless dictatorship that had threatened to permanently enslave it.

The Battle of the Atlantic was the single most important – and longest – campaign of the Second World War. If Britain lost this vital supply route it lost the war. In Jonathan Dimbleby’s dramatic account we see how this epic struggle for maritime mastery played out, from the politicians and admirals to the men on and under the sea and their families waiting at home.

This study of the D-Day landings which marked the beginning of the battle for the liberation of Europe draws together eyewitness accounts of survivors, plus a wealth of sources and documents to provide a perspective on the battle for Normandy.

‘D-Day Documents’ is a commemorative collection of previously unpublished documents marking the 70th anniversary of the Normandy landings.

It contains not only 21st Army Group intelligence reports on ‘Omaha’ Beach, RAF Photographic Reconnaissance prints and the ship’s log of HMS Warspite but various other important official documents covering different aspects of Operations Neptune and Overlord.

In 1944 the average life expectancy of a newly commissioned tank troop officer on the frontline in Normandy was estimated as being less than two weeks.

David Render was a 19-year-old second lieutenant fresh from Sandhurst when he was sent to France to join a veteran armoured unit that had already spent years fighting with the Desert Rats in North Africa.

Joining the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry five days after the D-Day landings, the combat-hardened men he was sent to command did not expect him to last long. However, in the following weeks of ferocious fighting in Normandy, in which more than 90% of his fellow tank commanders became casualties, his ability to emerge unscathed from countless combat engagements defied expectations and earned him his squadron’s nickname of the ‘Inevitable Mr Render’. In ‘Tank Action’ David Render tells his remarkable story.

Afghanistan, 1975: Twelve-year-old Amir is desperate to win the local kite-fighting tournament and his loyal friend Hassan promises to help him. But neither of the boys can foresee what will happen to Hassan that afternoon, an event that is to shatter their lives.

After the Russians invade and the family is forced to flee to America, Amir realises that one day he must return to Afghanistan under Taliban rule to find the one thing that his new world cannot grant him: redemption.

Beginning in the pre-dawn darkness of June 6th, 1944, ‘The First Wave’ follows ten men attempting to carry out D-Day’s most critical missions. Their actions would determine the fate of the invasion of Hitler’s Fortress Europe.

The ten make a charismatic, unforgettable cast. They include the first American paratrooper to touch down on Normandy soil; the only British soldier that day to earn a Victoria’s Cross; the Canadian brothers who led their decimated troops onto Juno Beach under withering fire; the colonel who faced the powerful 150mm guns of the Merville Battery; as well as a French commando who helped destroy German strongholds on Sword Beach.

The book will give authentic voice to the invaders’ enemies, the German enlisted men and officers tasked with destroying the Allies as they hit the beaches.

Peter Caddick-Adams is one of the leading military historians of his generation. This is the second volume of his definitive account of the liberation of Europe in 1944-45. ‘Sand and Steel’ is a new study of the Liberation of France, made up of D-Day, the Southern France landings and the activities of the Resistance.

It tells the story of almost a whole year, beginning on 10 December 1943, when Eisenhower was appointed Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces (SHAEF). It then follows the US build-up in England, the invasions & subsequent combat, dwells on the contribution of the Resistance, and ends with the liberation of Strasbourg on the Franco-German border, on 23 November 1944, at the point where Snow and Steel began.

On the moonless night of 18 August 1942 a flotilla pushes out into the flat water of the Channel. They are to seize the German-held port of Dieppe and hold it for at least 24 hours, showing the Soviets the Allies were serious about a second front and to get experience ahead of a full-scale invasion.

But confidence turned to carnage with nearly two thirds of the attackers dead, wounded or captured. Operation Jubilee – the Royal Air Force’s biggest battle since 1940 – has drama from start to finish, human folly and tragedy in spades and a fast, tight narrative with heroes at every level.

The raid was both a disaster and a milestone in the narrative of the war – it had powerful lessons and far-reaching consequences that paved the way to D-Day. Patrick Bishop’s account of this gallant endeavour reveals the big picture and unearths telling details, establishing definitively Operation Jubilee’s place in history.

After a lifetime in the RAF, Group Captain Bob Allen, finally allowed his family to see his official flying log. It contained the line: ‘Killed in Action’. He refused to answer any further questions, leaving instead a memoir of his life during World War II.

Joining up aged 19, within six months he was in No.1 Squadron flying a Hurricane in a dog fight over the Channel. For almost two years he lived in West Africa, fighting the Germany’s Vichy French allies, as well as protecting the Southern Atlantic supply routes.

Returning home at Christmas 1942, he retrained as a fighter-bomber pilot flying Typhoons and was one of the first over the Normandy beaches on D-Day. On 25 July 1944 Bob was shot down, spending the rest of the war in a POW camp where he was held in solitary confinement, interrogated by the Gestapo and imprisoned in the infamous Stalag Luft 3 and suffered the winter march of 1945.

From summer camp in Yorkshire in August 1939 all the way to the smouldering ruins of Berlin in 1945, via Palestine, Tobruk, El Alamein, D-Day and Nijmegen, this book presents an account of one man’s war.

From summer camp in Yorkshire in August 1939 to the smouldering ruins of Berlin in 1945, via Palestine, Tobruk, El Alamein, D-Day and Nijmegen, ‘An Englishman at War’ is a unique first-person account of one man’s war.

The author jumped into the chaos of occupied Europe on D-Day, fighting his way through Holland and finally capturing Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest. He was the only member of Easy Company to write down his experiences as soon as he came home from war. This book shows how a group of comrades entered the furnace of war and came out brothers.

Paratrooper David Kenyon Webster jumped into the chaos of occupied Europe on D-Day, fighting his way through Holland and finally capturing Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest. He was the only member of Easy Company to write down his experiences as soon as he came home from war.

Webster records with visceral and sometimes brutal detail what it is like to take a bullet in the leg, to fight pitched battles capturing enemy towns, and to endure long periods of boredom punctuated by sudden moments of terror. But most of all, ‘Parachute Infantry’ shows how a group of comrades entered the furnace of war and came out brothers.

‘The Spy with 29 Names’ is a gripping account of the exploits of Juan Pujol, the most extraordinary double agent of the Second World War, who was awarded both an Iron Cross by Germany and an MBE by Britain.

After the Spanish Civil War, determined to fight the spread of totalitarianism, Pujol moved to Lisbon with his wife, persuading the German intelligence services to take him on. But in fact, he was determined all along to work for the British, whom he saw as the exemplar of democracy and freedom.

Seeing the impact of the disinformation this Quixotic freelance agent was feeding to the Germans, MI5 brought him to London, where he created a bizarre fictional network of spies – 29 of them – that misled the entire German high command, including Hitler himself.

In 1942, the Allies were losing, Germany seemed unstoppable, and every able man in England was fighting. Believing that Britain was locked in an existential battle, Winston Churchill had already created a secret agency, the Special Operations Executive (SOE), whose spies were trained in everything from demolition to sharpshooting.

Their job, he declared, was to ‘set Europe ablaze’. But with most men on the front lines, the SOE was forced to do something unprecedented: recruit women. 39 answered the call, leaving their lives and families to become saboteurs in France. In ‘D-Day Girls’, Sarah Rose draws on recently declassified files, diaries, and oral histories to tell the thrilling story of three of these remarkable women.

This title tells the astonishing story of how Britain’s intelligence operatives, experts, and special operations teams contributed to the Allies’ victory in the Second World War.

The work of the Bletchley Park codebreakers in breaking the German Enigma cipher is estimated to have cut the length of the war by around two years, saving countless lives, while the Double Cross system, in which German secret agents were ‘turned’ by the British to feed their Nazi agent-runners with false information, ensured the success of the D-Day landings.

This book not only reveals new details about these remarkable operations but also tells the compelling story of how MI6 turned the disaster of lost networks across Europe into triumph.

The previously untold tale of one of the greatest escapes from occupied Europe ever committed by allied forces.

The Allied invasion of Europe during summer 1944 was widely expected and it fell to the Axis intelligence services to provide High Command with advance warning of the precise date and place of the landings. Using cryptanalysis of Allied signals, undercover agents and ships, and photographic evidence, Axis intelligence was pitted directly against their Allied counterparts, who actively tried to create a decoy and aim their enemies at the wrong location.

The success of Operation Overlord has played a large part in historians usually disparaging the German army as incompetent and corrupt. However, recently declassified documents suggest a different story. Here Nigel West provides the full, true story of Axis intelligence and how they affected the events of the D-Day landings.

In August 1347 six bare footed men knelt before King Edward III with nooses around their necks to beg for their lives and present him with the keys to Calais. This was the dramatic beginning of Calais becoming England’s first colony and an integral part of the kingdom for over two hundred years.

From its capture to the present day, Calais has played a significant part in many of the major events in UK’s history whether it be in claiming the throne of France, the Field of the Cloth of Gold, the Armada, Dunkirk, D-Day deception or the Calais Jungle and Brexit. This book describes how the destinies of England and Calais have been entwined particularly for invasions of France, then after its loss, for invasions of England.

Julian Whitehead guides the reader through potentially complicated periods such as the Hundred Years War and the Wars of the Roses in his customary clear and engaging fashion.