Description
Book SynopsisWorld War II is one of the first conflicts to be extensively recorded in detail by both combatants and journalists, and many iconic photos of the fighting and battlefields have been passed down to us today. But how do these battlefields look now, following the extensive rebuilding of the postwar era?
Featuring 75 battlefield sites divided by wartime theatre, World War II Battlefields allows the reader to explore well-known battle locations today and compare them to images captured during the height of the conflict.
Examine the huge concrete bunker at Fort Eben Emael, Belgium, captured by German glider troops in May 1940 and still intact today; see the beaches at Tarawa atoll, a scene of fierce fighting between the US Marines and the Japanese defenders in 1943; or the streets of the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, the centre of a bloody battle between the II SS Panzer Korps and the Red Army; explore the Norman village of Villers-Bocage, where a few German Tiger tanks halted the advance of the British 7th Armoured Division a week after the D-Day landings; see the twin-medieval towers of the bridge at Remagen on the Rhine river, made famous in photos and movies; see the dozens of Japanese ships sunk in Truk Lagoon following comprehensive American air attacks, and today a popular dive site; and examine Monte Cassino monastery in Italy, destroyed by Allied aerial bombing and since completely rebuilt as a place of pilgrimage.
Table of ContentsContents include:
Western Europe
Dunkirk beach, France
Atlantic Wall, France
St Nazaire, France
Omaha Beach, Normandy, France
Pont du Hoc, Normandy
Carentan, Normandy, France
Villers-Bocage, Normandy, France
Operation Dragoon, landings in Southern France
Fort Eben Emael, Belgium
Ardennes forest, Belgium
Bastogne, Ardennes Offensive
Ludendorff Bridge, Remagen, Netherlands
Arnhem Bridge, Netherlands
Führerbunker, Berlin, Germany
Trondheim, Norway
Eastern Europe
Ruins at Westerplatte, Gdansk, Poland
Gleiwitz Radio Station, Poland
Kaunas Bridge, Lithuania
Pripet marches, Belarus
Old Steam Mill, Volgograd (Stalingrad), Russia
Pavlov’s House, Volgograd (Stalingrad)
Kharkiv, Ukraine
Sumska Street, Kharkiv, Ukraine
Prokhorovka, Russia
Seelow Heights, Germany
Oder River
Warsaw
Berlin Reichstag and Brandenburg Gate
Mediterranean, Africa & Middle East
Tobruk, Libya
Bir Hakeim, Egypt
El Alamein, Egypt
Catania, Sicily
Monte Cassino Monastery, Italy
Crete
Battle of Malta – defences
Operation Torch landings, Oman, Algeria
Kasserine Pass, Tunisia
Gothic Line defences, Italy
Anzio beach
Asia and the Pacific
Pearl Harbor / USS Arizona
Johor Causeway, Malaysia
Bukit Chandu/Kent Ridge, Singapore
Midway Island
Kokoda Trail, New Guinea
Tarawa defences
Saipan landing beaches
Mt Suribachi, Iwo Jima
Landing beaches, Okinawa, Japan
Macarthur wades ashore, Leyte Gulf, Philippines
Truk Lagoon, Micronesia
Mitsubishi Ki-21, Rabaul, East New Britain, Papua New Guinea
US Amphibious LVT, Bloody Nose Ridge, Peleliu, Palau Islands
Hiroshima, Japan
