Decision in Normandy

By: Carlo D’Este

Narrated by: Tom Weiner

Field Marshal Montgomery’s battle plan for Normandy, following the D-day landings on June 6, 1944, resulted in one of the most controversial campaigns of the Second World War. Carlo D’Este’s acclaimed book gives the fullest possible account of the conception and execution of Montgomery’s plan, with all its problems and complexities. It brings to light information from diaries, papers, and letters that were not available in Montgomery’s lifetime and draws on interviews with senior officers who were involved in the campaign and have refrained from speaking out until now.

This is military history at its most dramatic and destined to become the definitive account of the Normandy campaign.

Carlo D’Este retired from the US Army in 1978 with the rank of lieutenant colonel to write full time. Among his books are Bitter Victory; Warlord: A Life of Churchill at War, 1874–1945; Patton: A Genius for War; World War II in the Mediterranean, 1942–1945; and Eisenhower: Allied Supreme Commander.

©1983 1994, 2004 by Carlo D’Este (P)2012 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Superb…An extraordinarily careful and provocative study of the Normandy campaign.” (Max Hastings, New York Times bestselling author)

“The best-researched, best-written account [of the Normandy campaign] I have ever read.” ( New York Times Book Review)

“A fresh perspective on the leadership of Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery and the Allied landings after D-day.” ( Publishers Weekly)

Great meta-narrative of a tough campaign.

Would you consider the audio edition of Decision in Normandy to be better than the print version?

I haven't read the print version.

What other book might you compare Decision in Normandy to and why?

D-Day by Anthony Beevor; Max Hastings' Overlord

Which scene was your favorite?

The description of the interplay between Montgomery and his subordinates in the battle for Caen.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

No.

Any additional comments?

D'Este achieves what few have - an impartial and reasoned view of Montgomery. Given all the controversy around the man, this was refreshing. Also, Tom Weiner's performance was exceptional.

The best book on the Normandy campaign

This may be the best book on the Normandy campaign. Carlo D’este examined every document , conversation , diary, statistic, account published or not regarding the allied campaign in Normandy. If there is a view on any aspect of the campaign and it’s participants, based on and solidly buttressed by facts, he has included it in this book. He describes the strategy , operational art and tactics. If you want D-day from the soldiers point of view, read the longest day by Cornelius Ryan, for everything else, it’s in this book.

An Outstanding book on the battle for Normandy.

To start off this review a bit of background on how I discovered this book. I bought an Audible copy of “Sicily ‘43” by James Holland, and found it to be one of the most slanted, poorly written, and biased books on a WWII campaign I’d ever listened to or read. In reading the few 1 star reviews I discovered D’Este’s book “Bitter Victory” on the invasion and conquest of Sicily. That book turned out to be not only excellent, but was an incredibly even handed retelling of the Sicily campaign. I then looked up other books by D’Este and discovered this book, so I bought an Audible edition, then a short time later a second hand copy because the book is now out of print. Plus, when I discover a top notch book I always try to buy a print edition for my permanent library. Electronic and Audible editions are handy, but if you ever lack an electronic device, you no longer have access to any of them. With a hard copy, you have it forever (unless of course, as my son-in-law pointed out, there is a fire).

Now to the review.

Carlo D’Este writes with extensive research behind every word. Beginning with “Part 1: The Great Endeavor” (chs. 1-6] he lays out what led up to, and hindered, the final decision(s) on when and how to make the cross Channel assault onto the Normandy beaches. This part really helps set up the how and why the decisions were made, how the original, and final plans, for Overlord took shape, who was selected for the top commands, and much more.

“Part II: Invasion” (chs. 7-18) covers, in the invasion, but goes into greater detail on the British/Canadian 2nd Army struggle to take Caen. In doing this many myths that have grown up are delved into, most are shattered, but some are confirmed. The information provided is amazing. The struggles of the fighting men, the mistakes made by commanders, both German and Allied, leading to a near stalemate in the eastern portion of the invasion.

Through much of the book the US invasion is discussed in less detail, and generally in relation to what is happening around Caen, and the attempt to capture the city and surrounding territory, which was to lead to and allow the British and Canadians to breakout and head east toward Paris. (This is later done by the US Army, which was much farther west than the British, by Patton’s Third Army. This resulted from the difficulties General Montgomery ran into around Caen. Of course the capture of the city/port of Cherbourg by the US forces was a high priority, with the object of bringing supplies into France through this port, which Montgomery acknowledged as being of great importance.)

It also covers the aspect of Britains beginning to run low on replacements. After several years of warfare, and with a smaller population than the United States, even with Canada providing large numbers of men, it was getting difficult for the UK to get the number of replacements it needed to fill the ranks with the rising number of casualties (killed, wounded & missing) plus those lost as prisoners of war. However, it was discovered shortly before this book was published, that there were in fact over 100,000 replacements in the UK! Yet they struggled with replacements to the end of the war. This was an astounding result of D’Este’s research, but he could not explain why this was not known or taken advantage of by the British Army, being starved for replacements. Montgomery was forced had to disband units that were under strength, to bring other units back to fighting strength. D’Este states that Churchill must have known about these men, but it’s not known why they weren’t used by the British in their world wide desperate need for replacements.

One of the difficulties I found most interesting was the problems and vast differences of opinions between the Army and the various parts of the Allied Expeditionary Air Forces (particularly between the British themselves). Clashing personalities, big egos, arguments over who was to control what; what the Tactical, and especially the Bomber forces, were to do in cooperation with the Allied Armies. It was later worked out to a great extent, but Bomber Command was generally against the use of its strategic bombers (medium & heavies) for anything except for the strategic bombing of Germany. They still strongly believed that bombing alone would make Germany surrender (proven wrong).

“Part III: Breakout.” This is a most interesting part. What it eventually took to bring about the breakout, both the problems and successes. Chapter 25. The Great Encirclement is fascinating, and is followed up in…

“Part IV: Aftermath” which begins with Chapter 26: The Falaise Controversy; which is about the near annihilation of a large portion of what was left of the German army attempting to escape through the Falaise pocket, as the jaws of the Allies, British and US, attempted to capture the retreating Germans. An aside on this topic: In one chapter of the fascinating book “D-DAY THROUGH GERMAN EYES” by HOLGER ECKHERTZ (available in paperback and Audible editions) you’ll get a clear picture of one German soldier’s opinion of what happened to the soldiers who did not make it out, and you will clearly see even more starkly why there is still controversy on this topic. The amount of destruction, and the number of German soldier killed is staggering. Because I’ve loaned the book to my son I cannot give the chapter and page number in this review, for which I apologize.

The “Epilogue” and “Postscript” close the book well. I leave out a discussion of what is covered, preferring to have people listen/read the book through to the end and get a great overview of the whole campaign, its controversies and its legacy, for themselves.

Throughout the book D’Este debunks numerous fallacies, and even “obfuscations” in official histories, concocted to make certain commanders and battles appear to have been more successful, or less catastrophic, than they were. He even covers a number of topics that have been left out of official histories in an attempt to cover up bad decisions, or poor statistics (such as the total number of casualties the British suffered during the Normandy campaign, even though the paperwork was handed over and signed for by the British Army {with the receipt still available}, all of it has gone missing, and could not be found, at least when this book was published {has it been discovered since?}). Also, how the Canadians decided to follow their own way of calculating and planning for replacements because the British formulas were based on North Africa losses (wide open deserts with room for maneuver) and not those when facing top notch German troops in the tight & almost claustrophobic bocage country in northwest France.

This is a fascinating and informative book. If you are able to, search for and obtain a PRINT COPY to read yourself, if for no other reason that it includes MAPS, CHARTS, and incredibly important information included in the FOOTNOTES, plus the APPENDICES (A, B, & C) all of which are not in the Audible edition. I found the FOOTNOTES to be nearly as informative as the main text itself because they broaden out, and add to, the narrative in some astounding ways!

Good history choice to listen to

What did you love best about Decision in Normandy?

Typically I avoid listening to history books as I'm listening on the drive to an from work and there are so many map references it's hard to follow along. Since this book was of a narrow focus there were few places to look up. If you're a history buff you won't even need to do that much.