Normandy 44: The Epic 77-Day Battle for France that Changed the Course of WWII: D-Day

TPV: What is really nice about this book by Holland is his presentation of both sides in the conflict. A great read.

United States on Nov 06, 2023

Chris R: A very good account of the Normandy campaign from both sides which includes the air and naval contributions which is often forgotten. The civilian story is also told. A good, detailedbalanced account which should be read by everyone with an interest in the wider Normandy campaign.

United Kingdom on Oct 01, 2023

Nick Smith: As always, Holland presents another detail oriented account of ww2. Be prepared for a long read with a lot of details

United States on Sep 23, 2023

Don Jones: Love this author and his unique perspectives on fact-based fiction or in this case a work that gives details of D-Day overlooked by other authors! Thank you Jim for another great piece of literature opening doors to new curiosities about D-Day.

United States on Sep 18, 2023

OurSwingingLifestyle: Like all of Holland’s books this one is very detailed but not so bogged down with detail that it’s hard to read. It’s an amazing history of the pre invasion buildup to the invasion itself and the push into France afterward.

Holland actually makes you feel you’re there and you become so familiar with the characters you feel you know them. The story, told from all sides, American, French, British and the Germans, is a well balanced book complete with a lot of maps and extra information.

United States on Aug 18, 2023

Andrew Harrison: Not the best account you can buy. Holland's thing is narrative history which has its place but he tends to let the actual explanation of the campaign (and others he writes about) suffer. I don't say he does this intentionally but I do think he expects the reader to have a certain knowledge prior to picking up his book. He can place narrative more successfully within the history of any given subject when he wants to, for instance his book on the seige of Malta is brilliant and one of my favourite reads.

United Kingdom on Jun 17, 2023

Paul Gill: You feel you are there with the lads on those awful days. Some cannon fodder but it is war…thanks good I don’t have to go to war.

Even the after party was daunting across the fields and hedges.

United Kingdom on Jun 17, 2023

Andy W: Any of James Holland's books should be read against his underpinning tenets - that military history must be read on three levels: strategic, tactical and operational. When read on this level, the author goes on to view the British and US forces in a much more positive light than the previous generation of historians such as Max Hastings and Antony Beevor. Anyone who has listened to the 'We Have Ways of Making you Talk' podcast will know the general thrust of Holland's arguments - why have a brute of a tank like a Tiger that is expensive to make, run and maintain when you can throw out hundreds of Shermans that are cheaper to make, easy to maintain and you can replace really quickly?

Normandy '44 continues that author's prolific output. He is always readable and personalises his accounts with a cast of characters that he follows through the narrative. He leads you through the planning stages, through the landings, through the dense work in June and July, to the breakout in August. Holland wears his knowledge lightly, with a crisp and engaging narrative that incites you to want to turn the page, to want to know what happens to everyone, to find out how it all ends (even if...

United Kingdom on Apr 10, 2021

Mr. J. Hastings: It would not quite be true to say that this book fills a gap since there are other books on the Normandy campaign of 1944 but they are vastly outnumbered by books and articles on D-Day itself. This is certainly a comprehensive book, with 540 pages of text, another hundred pages of supporting information, twenty-five maps and an impressive array of photographs. Holland’s approach is to give an overview of events fleshed out with the personal stories of numerous individuals on each side. It is an indication of the sizes of the forces on both sides (and of the thoroughness of Holland’s research) that most of their names were unfamiliar to me, in spite of my fairly extensive reading on D-Day and the Normandy campaign.

In Part I Holland begins with preparations, German and Allied, for the invasion. He emphasises the importance of the Allied campaign to gain mastery of the air and to destroy the French railway system, marshalling yards, bridges, locomotives and rolling stock, on which the German units on the coast depended for their supplies.

Part II covers D-Day itself in some detail. Part III is titled “Attrition”. Hitler having refused to allow his armies to...

United Kingdom on Jun 25, 2020

OXFORD DON: James Holland has written what will certainly be the,to date, definitive history of the Normandy campaign. Other reviewers have more than adequately delineated the critical events of this battle. I will focus upon a dimension of the work which is revisionist in a most important and welcome way.
1) General Montgomery, the victor of the battle for Normandy, has not received due credit partly because his impossible manners inflamed and angered all and sundry. This must not obscure his central contribution. The victor of Alamein, Monty tore up the plans for the invasion of Sicily and revised them requiring a much wider invasion frontage. He did the same with plans for Normandy, a move that was crucial to success there. The master of the set piece battle, Monty was more than able to improvise when required but his infuriating habit of announcing that all his battles went entirely according to plan has obscured his accomplishments. He had hoped for a rapid move on Caen but was stopped by a heavy concentration of Panzer divisions. Changing gears, the British and Canadians absorbed the punishment. Critics say Monty was bogged down, was slow and hesitant. But as Holland points out ,the...

United States on Jun 20, 2019