D-Day Through German Eyes: How the Wehrmacht Lost France

Product Information

This short but powerful book gives a fresh look at a battle that seems to many of us quite familiar. Book two is a series of eight interviews of personnel in specific jobs, not necessarily about precise beaches. Shortly before D-Day (June 6, 1944) the author's grandfather, a military journalist writing for widely read German military magazines such as Signal and Die Wehrmacht, interviewed soldiers stationed along the Atlantic Wall.

When the incredibly brave Allied forces stormed those beaches, there weren't just faceless machine guns killing young men everywhere--it was young men (and old, and crippled) up on the cliffs, just as terrified and determined. We rarely see events such as the Blitzkrieg, the Battle of Britain, The Russian Front, Normandy and the great city bombings through the eyes of the Germans involved, and these interviews bring a radical new perspective to such momentous events. It turns out that many were sent to England and/or the United States, were treated very well, and some even stayed!

Previous histories have focused on the ‘clash of the generals’; the battle between von Runstedt and Eisenhower, Montgomery and Rommel, but on the German side in particular this was a battle that would be fought by divisional and regimental commanders; the ‘German D-Day colonels’ upon whom the real business of trying to defeat the invasion fell – it was they and their men, outnumbered and outgunned, who somehow held Normandy for ten whole weeks against the greatest seaborne invasion force ever assembled, and occasionally even came close to defeating it. We see, too, how the Germans fought in the great coastal bunkers, perceived as impregnable fortresses, but in reality often becoming tombs for their crews. I really enjoyed reading this book,it gives you a different perspective on what happened on 6th June 1944. This grossly oversimplified understanding has created many complexities in our lives and taken away from us the very fundamentals of the joy of living.

These Germans, in well prepared defences, certainly managed to inflict heavy casualties on the Allies, but they were totally overwhelmed by the bombardment from ships, the total air power and the tenacity of the ground troops. One soldier couldn't get over the fact that the Allies had no horses or mules and that all their transports were mechanized meaning they had no fears of fuel shortages. Love Island All Stars fans slam Liberty Poole for crying over Mitchel Taylor again despite pair's bitter split: 'They broke up like 10 times!Written from the 'other side' and told through the words of the veterans, this book is a revelation. I'm really not doubting them on this, but I do think ten years after the war, they did become a bit more savvy and know to distance themselves from those parts of the German regime, and so they made sure to mention that they didn't like the men from the SS. As one German officer notes in his interview, any depiction of Germans in those movies "is a mockery. I'm sorry but I found all of the details nothing more than a collection of trivia someone with a broad interest in WW2/Normandy could pick up along the way.

This assessment of the D-Day landings and the subsequent struggle for the Falaise Pocket from the defenders' perspective, focuses on the performance of the German commanders on the ground and uses first-hand accounts to give an insight into conditions and contemporary attitudes. It was very interesting to listen to their explanations and descriptions of attitudes and motivations. Now, book 2 contains a completely different set of astonishing German testimonies from the same archive.Of course there have been fictional works illustrating the rigors and horrors experienced by men in this position but these are fictions and their depictions can be dismissed as inventions of a overly dramatic author. Now Caine delves into the real stories behind the gangs we think we know so well, revealing the hidden realities behind the myths. One was the author T Lobsang Rampa, a reincarnated Tibetan monk who described his time living in Tibet and training to be a spiritual leader. One Thursday lunchtime the Earth gets unexpectedly demolished to make way for a new hyperspace bypass. As for their men, they ranged from elite Waffen-SS stormtroopers through to bewildered teenagers, old men, 'recycled' invalids and even anti-communist Eastern legions.