Normandy: A Graphic History of D-Day. The Invasion of Hitler’s Fortress Europe

Vansant, Wayne. Normandy: A Graphic History of D-Day. The Invasion of Hitler’s Fortress Europe. 2012. 104p. ISBN 978-1-93958-179-2. Available at 940.54 VAN on the library shelves.

In the spring of 1944 the Second World War had definitively turned against Germany. In the east the Germans were slowly being pushed back towards Germany by the Soviet Union. Africa had been liberated the year before, and Allied forces had invaded Italy and were pushing north. Stalin was clamoring for the much heralded second front, a landing of American, Canadian, and British forces in western Europe to offer some relief to the Russian forces fighting the Nazis.

For over a year, General Eisenhower and his staff planned the invasion. The most obvious landing sites were also the most protected, so the Allies decided to disembark in Normandy. On the morning of June 6, 1944, the largest armada of ships and planes supported the biggest amphibious operation ever conducted as over a hundred thousand soldiers, tanks, jeeps, fuel and ammunition came ashore.

Over the next three months, Allied armies pushed out of Normandy, cut off Brittany and pushed East, liberating Paris and heading towards Germany. Beautifully illustrated, this book depicts this military campaign in all of its gory and glorious details, providing a visual sense of what it was like to be there for the reader. Fans of the Second World War will enjoy reading about one of the greatest accomplishment of the greatest generation.

Other books in this series include The Battle of the Bulge: A Graphic History of Allied Victory in the Ardennes, 1944-1945 and Bombing Nazi Germany: The Graphic history of the Allied Air Campaign that Defeated Hitler in World War II.