D-Day: The Decision to Launch

D-Day: The Decision to Launch PDF Author: Antony Beevor
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101630906
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 634

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Book Description
The little-known drama of the last-minute decision to launch the invasion of Normandy—excerpted from the internationally bestselling D-Day: The Battle for Normandy In D-Day: The Decision to Launch, excerpted from Antony Beevor’s bestselling book D-Day: The Battle for Normandy, readers get the little-known story of how the difficult decision was made to launch the Allied invasion of France on June 6, 1944. The stakes could not have been higher: if Operation Overlord were to fail, it would be a crushing blow to the Allies, a huge loss of both men and equipment. The decision of when to launch rested with supreme commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower, but it hinged on one factor: the weather. If there was too much cloud cover, the Allied bombers wouldn’t be able to provide air support, and if the seas were too rough, the landing craft would be swamped. It fell to one man to predict the weather: Dr. James Stagg, the head of the meteorological team at Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force. This riveting selection from D-Day, praised by Time as “a vibrant work of history that honors the sacrifice of tens of thousands of men and women,” tells the fascinating inside story of one of the most important decisions of World War II.

D-Day: The Decision to Launch

D-Day: The Decision to Launch PDF Author: Antony Beevor
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101630906
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 634

Get Book Here

Book Description
The little-known drama of the last-minute decision to launch the invasion of Normandy—excerpted from the internationally bestselling D-Day: The Battle for Normandy In D-Day: The Decision to Launch, excerpted from Antony Beevor’s bestselling book D-Day: The Battle for Normandy, readers get the little-known story of how the difficult decision was made to launch the Allied invasion of France on June 6, 1944. The stakes could not have been higher: if Operation Overlord were to fail, it would be a crushing blow to the Allies, a huge loss of both men and equipment. The decision of when to launch rested with supreme commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower, but it hinged on one factor: the weather. If there was too much cloud cover, the Allied bombers wouldn’t be able to provide air support, and if the seas were too rough, the landing craft would be swamped. It fell to one man to predict the weather: Dr. James Stagg, the head of the meteorological team at Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force. This riveting selection from D-Day, praised by Time as “a vibrant work of history that honors the sacrifice of tens of thousands of men and women,” tells the fascinating inside story of one of the most important decisions of World War II.

D-Day

D-Day PDF Author: Antony Beevor
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0141959266
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 854

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Book Description
THE NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER 'Magnificent, vivid, moving, superb' Max Hastings, Sunday Times ______________ This is the closest you will ever get to war - the taste, the smell, the noise and the fear The Normandy Landings that took place on D-Day involved by far the largest invasion fleet ever known. The scale of the undertaking was awesome and what followed was some of the most cunning and ferocious fighting of the war. As casualties mounted, so too did the tensions between the principal commanders on both sides. Meanwhile, French civilians caught in the middle of these battlefields or under Allied bombing endured terrible suffering. Even the joys of Liberation had their darker side. Antony Beevor's inimitably gripping narrative conveys the true experience of war. He lands the reader on the beach alongside the heroes whose stories he so masterfully renders in their full terrifying glory. ______________ 'A thrilling story, with all Beevor's narrative mastery' Chris Patten, Financial Times 'Beevor's D-Day has all the qualities that have made his earlier works so successful: an eye for telling and unusual detail, an ability to make complex events understandable, and a wonderful graphic style' Ian Kershaw, Guardian, Books of the Year 'D-Day's phenomenal success is both understandable and justified' James Holland 'D-Day is a triumph . . . on almost every page there's some little detail that sticks in the mind or tweaks the heart. This is a terrific, inspiring, heart-breaking book' Sam Leith, Daily Mail

D-Day Invasion

D-Day Invasion PDF Author: iMinds
Publisher: iMinds Pty Ltd
ISBN: 1921746939
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 6

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Book Description
The story behind D-Day begins in 1939 when Nazi Germany, led by Adolf Hitler, attacked Poland and ignited World War Two. The following year, the Germans occupied France and Western Europe and launched a vicious air war against Britain. In 1941, they invaded the Soviet Union. Seemingly unstoppable, the Nazis now held virtually all of Europe. They imposed a ruthless system of control and unleashed the horror of the Holocaust. However, by 1943, the tide had begun to turn in favor of the Allies, the forces opposed to Germany. In the east, despite huge losses, the Soviets began to force the Germans back.

Paris After the Liberation 1944-1949

Paris After the Liberation 1944-1949 PDF Author: Antony Beevor
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101175079
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 465

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Book Description
"A rich and intriguing story whcih the authors disentangle with great skill."--Sunday Telegraph From Antony Beevor, the internationally bestselling author of D-Day and The Battle of Arnhem In this brilliant synthesis of social, political, and cultural history, Antony Beevor and Artemis Cooper present a vivid and compelling portrayal of the City of Lights after its liberation. Paris became the diplomatic battleground in the opening stages of the Cold War. Against this volatile political backdrop, every aspect of life is portrayed: scores were settled in a rough and uneven justice, black marketers grew rich on the misery of the population, and a growing number of intellectual luminaries and artists including Hemingway, Beckett, Camus, Sartre, de Beauvoir, Cocteau, and Picassocontributed new ideas and a renewed vitality to this extraordinary moment in time.

The First Wave

The First Wave PDF Author: Alex Kershaw
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 045149007X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 401

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Book Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Alex Kershaw, New York Times bestselling author of Against All Odds, returns with an utterly immersive, adrenaline-driven account of D-Day combat. “Meet the assaulters: pathfinders plunging from the black, coxswains plowing the whitecaps, bareknuckle Rangers scaling sheer rock . . . Fast-paced and up close, this is history’s greatest story reinvigorated as only Alex Kershaw can.”—Adam Makos, New York Times bestselling author of Spearhead and A Higher Call Beginning in the predawn darkness of June 6, 1944, The First Wave follows the remarkable men who carried out D-Day’s most perilous missions. The charismatic, unforgettable cast includes the first American paratrooper to touch down on Normandy soil; the glider pilot who braved antiaircraft fire to crash-land mere yards from the vital Pegasus Bridge; the brothers who led their troops onto Juno Beach under withering fire; as well as a French commando, returning to his native land, who fought to destroy German strongholds on Sword Beach and beyond. Readers will experience the sheer grit of the Rangers who scaled Pointe du Hoc and the astonishing courage of the airborne soldiers who captured the Merville Gun Battery in the face of devastating enemy counterattacks. The first to fight when the stakes were highest and the odds longest, these men would determine the fate of the invasion of Hitler’s fortress Europe—and the very history of the twentieth century. The result is an epic of close combat and extraordinary heroism. It is the capstone Alex Kershaw’s remarkable career, built on his close friendships with D-Day survivors and his intimate understanding of the Normandy battlefield. For the seventy-fifth anniversary, here is a fresh take on World War II's longest day. Praise for The First Wave: “Masterful... readers will feel the sting of the cold surf, smell the acrid cordite that hung in the air, and duck the zing of machine-gun bullets whizzing overhead. The First Wave is an absolute triumph.”—James M. Scott, bestselling author of Target Tokyo “These pages ooze with the unforgettable human drama of history's most consequential invasion.”—John C. McManus, author of The Dead and Those About to Die

Comrades

Comrades PDF Author: Stephen E. Ambrose
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
ISBN: 9780743200745
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 152

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Book Description
From the author of Undaunted Courage and D-Day comes this celebration of male friendship, taken both from the pages of history and from Ambrose’s own life. Acclaimed historian Stephen Ambrose begins his examination with a glance inward—he starts this book with his brothers, his first and forever friends, and the shared experiences that join them for a lifetime, overcoming distance and misunderstandings. He writes of Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had a golden gift for friendship and who shared a perfect trust with his younger brother Milton in spite of their apparently unequal stations. With great feeling, Ambrose brings to life the relationships of the young soldiers of Easy Company who fought and died together from Normandy to Germany, and he describes with admiration three who fought in different armies on different sides in that war and became friends later. He recounts the friendships of Lewis and Clark and of Crazy Horse and He Dog, and he tells the story of the Custer brothers who died together at the Little Big Horn. Comrades concludes with the author’s moving recollection of his own friendship with his father. “He was my first and always most important friend. I didn’t learn that until the end, when he taught me the most important thing, that the love of father-son-father-son is a continuum, just as love and friendship are expansive.”

Our Finest Day

Our Finest Day PDF Author: Mark Bowden
Publisher: Chronicle Books
ISBN: 9780811830508
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 44

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Book Description
In "Our Finest Day, " the bestselling author of "Black Hawk Down" reveals the human faces behind D-Day, using reproductions of personal letters, poignant journal entries from soldiers, secret dispatches and pages from code books, and strategic battle plans and maps. Interactive pull-out historical documents.

The Challenger Launch Decision

The Challenger Launch Decision PDF Author: Diane Vaughan
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226851761
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 600

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Book Description
List of Figures and TablesPreface1: The Eve of the Launch 2: Learning Culture, Revising History 3: Risk, Work Group Culture, and the Normalization of Deviance 4: The Normalization of Deviance, 1981-1984 5: The Normalization of Deviance, 1985 6: The Culture of Production 7: Structural Secrecy 8: The Eve of the Launch Revisited 9: Conformity and Tragedy 10: Lessons Learned Appendix A. Cost/Safety Trade-Offs? Scrapping the Escape Rockets and the SRB Contract Award Decision Appendix B. Supporting Charts and Documents Appendix C. On Theory Elaboration, Organizations, and Historical EthnographyAcknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

Ardennes 1944

Ardennes 1944 PDF Author: Antony Beevor
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0698411498
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 513

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Book Description
The prizewinning historian and bestselling author of D-Day, Stalingrad, and The Battle of Arnhem reconstructs the Battle of the Bulge in this riveting new account On December 16, 1944, Hitler launched his ‘last gamble’ in the snow-covered forests and gorges of the Ardennes in Belgium, believing he could split the Allies by driving all the way to Antwerp and forcing the Canadians and the British out of the war. Although his generals were doubtful of success, younger officers and NCOs were desperate to believe that their homes and families could be saved from the vengeful Red Army approaching from the east. Many were exultant at the prospect of striking back. The allies, taken by surprise, found themselves fighting two panzer armies. Belgian civilians abandoned their homes, justifiably afraid of German revenge. Panic spread even to Paris. While some American soldiers, overwhelmed by the German onslaught, fled or surrendered, others held on heroically, creating breakwaters which slowed the German advance. The harsh winter conditions and the savagery of the battle became comparable to the Eastern Front. In fact the Ardennes became the Western Front’s counterpart to Stalingrad. There was terrible ferocity on both sides, driven by desperation and revenge, in which the normal rules of combat were breached. The Ardennes—involving more than a million men—would prove to be the battle which finally broke the back of the Wehrmacht. In this deeply researched work, with striking insights into the major players on both sides, Antony Beevor gives us the definitive account of the Ardennes offensive which was to become the greatest battle of World War II.

Advocating Overlord

Advocating Overlord PDF Author: Philip Padgett
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 1640120483
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 523

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Book Description
"Well there it is. It won't work, but you must bloody well make it," said the chief of Britain's military leaders when he gave orders to begin planning for what became known as Operation Overlord. While many view D-Day as one of the most successful operations of World War II, most aren't aware of the intensive year of planning and political tension between the Allies that preceded the amphibious military landing on June 6, 1944. This intriguing history reveals how President Franklin D. Roosevelt, while on a fishing trip in the middle of World War II, altered his attitude toward Winston Churchill and became an advocate for Operation Overlord. Philip Padgett challenges the known narrative of this watershed moment in history in his examination of the possible diplomatic link between Normandy and the atomic bomb. He shows how the Allies came to agree on a liberation strategy that began with D-Day--and the difficult forging of British and American scientific cooperation that produced the atomic bomb. At its core this story is about how a new generation of leaders found the courage to step beyond national biases in a truly Allied endeavor to carry out one of history's most successful military operations.