History books about the 1944 D-Day air assault – Page 2

101st Airborne: The Screaming Eagles at Normandy

This unprecedented look at the 101st Airborne contains photographs so rare, you won’t believe your eyes! Mark Bando made an incredible find when he unearthed 50 color images of the Screaming Eagles taken at Normandy. These photographs, together with firsthand accounts and day-to-day, minute-by-minute history of the 101st Airborne, tell the story of this elite fighting group. These extremely rare images, together with more than 200 previously unpublished archival photographs from the author’s own collection, provide a dynamic look at these daring World War II paratroopers.

by Mark A. Bando

Band of Brothers: E Company 506th Regiment 101st Airborne, D-Day & Citizen Soldiers

In Band of Brothers, Stephen E. Ambrose pays tribute to the men of Easy Company, a crack rifle company in the US Army. From their rigorous training in Georgia in 1942 to the dangerous parachute landings on D-Day and their triumphant capture of Hitler’s ‘Eagle’s Nest’ in Berchtesgaden. Ambrose tells the story of this remarkable company. Repeatedly send on the toughest missions, these brave men fought, went hungry, froze and died in the service of their country. Celebrating the 25th anniversary since the original publication, this reissue contains a new foreword from Tom Hanks who was an executive producer on the award-winning HBO series.

by Stephen E. Ambrose

Night Drop: The American Airborne Invasion of Normandy

Brigadier General S.L.A. Marshall collected information for this direct interviews with the men in the field within days after the action took place in June, 1944. His notes have served as the raw material for several histories, written by others, of the Normandy invasion.

by S. L. A. Marshall

Operation Tonga: The Glider Assault: 6 June 1944

Operation Tonga – The Glider Assault: 6 June 1944 is an account of the Glider Pilot Regiment’s role in Operation Tonga, the first stage of the airborne assault in the Normandy landings in June 1944. The story is told through the eyes of those who were there – glider pilots, paratroopers, pathfinders, tug crews and passengers – and covers the operation from training through to evacuations after D-Day. Operation Tonga was vital to the success of D-Day and included the now famous attacks on the Merville Battery and the bridges over the Orne River and Caen Canal.

by Kevin Shannon and Stephen Wright

Pegasus Bridge: Bénouville D-Day 1944

The night before D-Day, light infantry and a detachment of Royal Engineers landed by gliders at Pegasus Bridge, which spanned the Caen Canal. Quickly overwhelming the guards, they managed to hold the bridge and help prevent German reinforcements from reaching the British landing beaches. Will Fowler provides a detailed blow-by-blow account of this classic wartime raid.

by Will Fowler

If Chaos Reigns: The Near-Disaster and Ultimate Triumph of the Allied Airborne Forces on D-Day, June 6, 1944

First-person accounts by the veterans who were there―from paratroopers to glidermen to the pilots who flew them into the battle, as well as the commanders (Eisenhower, Taylor, Ridgway, Gavin, and more)―make for compelling, “you-are-there” reading. If Chaos Reigns is a fitting tribute to the men who rode the wind into battle and managed to pull victory out of confusion, chaos, and almost certain defeat.

by Flint Whitlock

The Day the Devils Dropped In: The 9th Parachute Battalion in Normandy, D-Day to D+6

The Allied assault on Hitler’s Fortress Europe began in the dawn of 6 June 1944 with daring airborne landings by men of the Parachute Regiment. This book tells of the Paras’ first week of intense fighting from the assault on the vital Merville Battery onwards. Through personal accounts and detailed research a full and dramatic picture is built up of the actions that occurred as the Germans desperately attempted to displace the Allies’ tenuous beachhead.

by Neil Barber

Air War D-Day: Assaults from the Sky

This is the second volume of a comprehensive five part work on D-Day that includes a multitude of personal military accounts from both Allied and German Aviation personnel ‘who were there’. This important episode within the wider history of D-Day is enlivened in classic Bowman fashion, featuring both extensive historical notes as well as deeply personal accounts of endurance and individual gallantry.

by Martin W. Bowman

The Manner of Men: 9 PARA’s Heroic D-Day Mission

The Manner of Men is an epic account of courage beyond the limits of human endurance, where paratroopers prevailed despite intelligence failures and higher command blunders, in what has been described as one of the most remarkable feat of arms of the British Army and the Parachute Regiment during the Second World War.

by Stuart Tootal

Battle Zone Normandy: Orne Bridgehead

Starting with an examination of 6th Airborne Division, its plan and the German opposition, Lloyd Clark provides an overview of British operations east of the River Orne from the initial landings in the early hours of 6 June to the capture of Breville seven days later. The battlefield tours which follow include the famous and dramatic assaults on ‘Pegasus’ Bridge and the Merville Battery, but also the lesser known struggle to secure the British southern flank around Le Bas de Ranville, Longueval and St.Honorine on 6-7 June and the Battle of Breville on 12 June.

by Lloyd Clark

Sainte-Mere-Eglise: Photographs of D-Day – 6 June 1944

This brand new large format photo history book from Michel de Trez contains not only hundreds of never before published period photographs taken at Ste-Mere-Eglise in early June 1944 but also numerous colour pictures of the equipment and uniforms of the men who fought for the liberation of Ste-Mere-Eglise. This includes famous General Matthew Ridgway’s proudly retained helmet and illustrious Lieutenant Dick Winters’ D-Day equipment.

by Michel de Trez

Utah Beach, Sainte Mere Eglise

During the night of 5-6 June 1944, the Pathfinders were the first Allied soldiers to set foot on Norman soil. The paratroops of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions fighting all night until the 4th Infantry Division, landing on Utah Beach, linked up with them. German troops and defenses, paratroopers’ eyewitness accounts, unpublished material, are all presented here in this superbly illustrated album.

by Georges Bernage & Dominique François