Writing Normandy brings together eighteen articles by historian Felice Lifshitz, some of which are published here for the first time. The articles examine the various ways in which local and regional narratives about the past were created and revised in Normandy during the central Middle Ages. These narratives are analyzed through a combination of both cultural studies and manuscript studies in order to assess how they functioned, who they benefitted, and the various contexts in which they were transmitted. The essays pay particular attention to the narratives built around venerated saints and secular rulers, and in doing so bring together narratives that have traditionally been discussed separately by scholars. The book will appeal to scholars and students of cultural history and medieval history, as well as those interested in manuscript studies. (CS1095)
Here, for the first time in paperback, is an outstanding military history that offers a dramatic new perspective on the Allied campaign that began with the invasion of the D-Day beaches of Normandy. Nationa advertising in Military History.
Presents a young reader's adaptation of "The Guns at Last Light," tracing the Battle of Normandy and the Allied liberation of Western Europe through the end of World War II.
A revised and updated single-source reference book accurately detailing the German field forces employed in Normandy in 1944 and their losses. In this book, military historian Dr. Niklas Zetterling provides a sobering analysis of the subject matter and debunks a number of popular myths concerning the Normandy campaign—the effectiveness of Allied air power; the preferential treatment of Waffen-SS formations in comparison to their army counterparts; etc. He supports his text with exhaustive footnoting and provides an organizational chart for most of the formations covered in the book. Also included are numerous organizational diagrams, charts, tables, and graphs. “A valuable reference for anyone seriously interested in the battle for Normandy.” —The NYMAS Review
Calvados, the incomparable pear and apple-based brandy from Normandy, France, has a history dating back nearly 500 years. While not as well-known as Cognac or Armagnac, Calvados holds a dear place in the hearts of many spirits lovers. In this comprehensive study, famed spirits writer and author Charles Neal, takes the reader on a back road voyage throughout northern France, from mount Saint Michel to Rouen to Omaha beach and the small, hidden hamlets of the Orne. The history of the region and its distinctiveness in France are fully defined and all of the factors that go into making quality Calvados are explained, from the various soil types, apple and pear varieties, and cider production to its distillation and aging in barrel. Complete with biographies and reviews of more than 200 producers and illustrated with lush, evocative photography of the Norman countryside, Calvados is an indispensable guide for the serious spirits connoisseur and nectar for Francophile souls.
“A moving examination of how French civilians experienced the fighting” at Normandy during WWII from the acclaimed author of What Soldiers Do (Telegraph, UK). “Like big black umbrellas, they rain down on the fields across the way, and then disappear behind the black line of the hedges.” Silent parachutes dotting the night sky—that’s how one Normandy woman learned that the D-Day invasion was under way in June of 1944. Though they yearned for liberation, the French had to steel themselves for war, knowing that their homes, lands, and fellow citizens would have to bear the brunt of the attack. With D-Day through French Eyes, Mary Louise Roberts turns the conventional narrative of D-Day on its head, taking readers across the Channel to view the invasion anew. Roberts builds her history from an impressive range of gripping first-person accounts by French citizens throughout the region. A farm family notices that cabbage is missing from their garden—then discovers that the guilty culprits are American paratroopers hiding in the cowshed. Fishermen rescue pilots from the wreck of their B-17, then search for clothes big enough to disguise them as civilians. A young man learns to determine whether a bomb is whistling overhead or silently plummeting toward them. When the allied infantry arrived, French citizens guided them to hidden paths and little-known bridges, giving them crucial advantages over the German occupiers. As she did in her acclaimed account of GIs in postwar France, What Soldiers Do, Roberts here sheds vital new light on a story we thought we knew. "In the great tradition of Studs Terkel and Is Paris Burning?, Mary Louise Roberts uses the diaries and memoirs of French civilians to narrate a history of the French at D-Day that has for too long been occluded by the mythology of the allied landing.”—Alice Kaplan, author of Dreaming in French
Normandy depicts the planning and execution of Operation Overlord in 96 full-color pages. The initial paratrooper assault is shown, as well as the storming of the five D-Day beaches: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword. But the story does not end there. Once the Allies got ashore, they had to stay ashore. The Germans made every effort to push them back into the sea. This book depicts the such key events in the Allied liberation of Europe as: 1. Construction of the Mulberry Harbors, two giant artificial harbors built in England and floated across the English Channel so that troops, vehicles, and supplies could be offloaded across the invasion beaches.2. The Capture of Cherbourg, the nearest French port, against a labyrinth of Gennan pillboxes.3. The American fight through the heavy bocage (hedgerow country) to take the vital town of Saint-Lô.4. The British-Canadian struggle for the city of Caen against the “Hitler Youth Division,” made up of 23,000 seventeen- and eighteen-year-old Nazi fanatics.5. The breakout of General Patton’s Third Army and the desperate US 30th Division’s defense of Mortaine.6. The Falaise Pocket, known as the “Killing Ground, ” where the remnants of two German armies were trapped and bombed and shelled into submission. The slaughter was so great that 5,000 Germans were buried in one mass grave. 7. The Liberation of Paris, led by the 2nd Free French Armored Division, which had been fighting for four long years with this goal in mind.
This WWII history chronicles the remarkable engineering achievement that kept vital supplies flowing to Allied forces after D-Day. In the planning stages of the Normandy invasion, Allied strategists correctly anticipated that the Germans would deny, either by destruction or dogged defense, the vital Channel ports in the aftermath of D-Day. If the invading armies could not be kept resupplied, Operation Overlord would fail. The only solution was to design, build, transport and install two massive artificial harbors. Code Name Mulberry tells the story of this highly ambitious scheme from the initial planning stage to its successful execution on the field of battle. Told in clear, accessible prose, the historical narrative is amply supported with photographs, diagrams and tables, which vividly demonstrate the scale of this great venture.
'A superb account of the invasion that deserves immense praise. To convey the human drama of Normandy requires great knowledge and sensitivity. Holland has both in spades' The Times Renowned World War Two historian James Holland presents an entirely new perspective on one of the most important moments in recent history, unflinchingly examining the brutality and violence that characterised the campaign. ______________ D-Day and the 76 days of bitter fighting in Normandy that followed have come to be seen as a defining episode in the Second World War. Its story has been endlessly retold, and yet it remains a narrative burdened by both myth and assumed knowledge. In this reexamined history, James Holland presents a broader overview, one that challenges much of what we think we know about D-Day and the Normandy campaign. The sheer size and scale of the Allies' war machine ultimately dominates the strategic, operational and tactical limitations of the German forces. This was a brutal campaign. In terms of daily casualties, the numbers were worse than for any one battle during the First World War. 'A devastating new account..Holland knows his stuff when it comes to military matters. The reader is in safe hands navigating each aspect of this complex campaign' Daily Mail, Book of the Week _________________ Drawing on unseen archives and testimonies from around the world Introducing a cast of eye-witnesses that includes foot soldiers, tank men, fighter pilots and bomber crews, sailors, civilians, resistance fighters and those directing the action An epic telling that will profoundly recalibrate our understanding of its true place in the tide of human history
