Description
Book Synopsis
The Allied landings in Normandy on June 6, 1944, marked the beginning of the German defeat in the West. Military historian Samuel W. Mitcham, Jr. vividly recaptures the desperation of the Wehrmacht as the thin gray line in Normandy finally snapped, the 5th Panzer and 7th Armies collapsed, and the survivors fled the Allied steamroller in a mad dash back to the Reich. From the reactions of soldiers in the field to military decisions at the highest levels, this is the story of the Reich's unraveling told from a German perspective.
Fighting hedgerow to hedgerow in the pitted Normandy landscape would delay the Allied Advance and make each small victory a costly one. Western forces would achieve their first strategic objective, the port of Cherbourg, but they would find it reduced to rubble, a result of the best-planned demolition in history. Still, the Allies did benefit from an ongoing anti-Hitler conspiracy that relayed false information to Berlin. While German forces
Table of Contents
Setting the Stage for Disaster Hans von Kluge and the Conspiracy of July 20 The Breakout The Conquest of Brittany Hitler Puts His Head Into the Lion's Mouth The Falaise Pocket: Army Group B in Slaughtered The Invasions of Southern France The Retreat Behind the Seine Beyond the Seine The Allies Mop Up in France The "Miracle of the West" Appendices Bibliography Index
