Antony Beevor's D-Day: The Battle for Normandy 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 simply awesome. What followed them was some of the most cunning and ferocious fighting of the war, at times as savage as anything seen on the Eastern Front. As casualties mounted, so too did the tensions between the principal co...

On 16 December 1944, Hitler launched his 'last gamble' in the snow-covered forests and gorges of the Ardennes on the Belgian/German border. Although Hitler's 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. The Ardennes offensive, with more than a million men involved, became the greatest battle of the war in western Europe. In January 1945, when the Red Arm...

The author of the multiple prize-winning "Stalingrad" posits that a British fascination with heroic failure has skewed the truth of the airborne battle for the bridges across Arnhem and other towns, considering overlooked Dutch, British and German sources to present a more complex reality behind the event. Beevor also finds room for lighter human moments in his record of the event, alongside the dark drama and loss that defined the main part of the action. HB jacket image shown.