This Hardcover Book item from Little, Brown and Company was reviewed on 12-Dec-2008.
Search ISBN:0316605611 offer from Abebooks or used books from Alibris. Ten Days to D-Day: Citizens and Soldiers on the Eve of the Invasion Reference Book. Classifications : General France Europe History Subjects Books General AAS France Europe History Subjects Books Normandy World War II Military History Subjects Books General World War II Military History Subjects Books . Click the following link to view the cover of Ten Days to D-Day: Citizens and Soldiers on the Eve of the Invasion. Related topics: General. France. Europe. History. Subjects. Books. General AAS. France. Europe. History. requestid: 58aa45c7-7df1-49fc-807b-2bacc4e8aa66
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1) Hardcover Book Ten Days to D-Day: Citizens and Soldiers on the Eve of the Invasion by Little, Brown and Company. This is a collection of stories that make the days leading to the Normandy invasion come back to life. It is a good companion volume for the movies "Yanks" and "The Longest Day."
General Eisenhower relieved stress by hitting an imaginary golf ball in his office; General Montgomery named his two dogs Rommel and Hitler; Churchill´s wife Clementine often sent him notes signed "Love from Clemmie" with a small drawing of a cat.
Several days before the troops sailed for France, security was intense. A British soldier who knew about the invasion sneaked out of his camp and hitchhiked to see his parents and girlfriend. Along the way he bought drinks and told several American soldiers details of the coming invasion.
When he was discovered missing, a quiet but intense manhunt covered the area. He was finally found and interrogated. The American base where he had stopped was cordoned off, and the people who gave him rides were found and volunteered to stay inside their homes for several days. Later the British soldier was sentenced to ten years in prison.
A British newspaper published daily crossword puzzles, and one contained the words "Utah," "mulberry," and "Omaha," all key words describing D-Day operations. Frantic British intelligence agents interrogated the author of the puzzle, a school teacher. Years after the war it was found that his students gave him suggestions for his crossword puzzles. Utah, mulberry, and Omaha were terms that they had heard by spending time with soldiers.
In spite of extraordinary security measures, there were other leaks. Three days before the invasion, a Teletype operator practiced typing the invasion news. By mistake the news went out worldwide and was read on hundreds of radio stations.
The British people knew when the invasion was at hand. They had become accustomed to seeing lines of jeeps, trucks, and trailers laden with backpacks and equipment along the roads. The olive drab uniforms and vehicles became as ubiquitous as the green of the spring countryside. Then overnight, the crowds of GIs that had milled through the towns disappeared. After months of hearing vehicles roaring through streets and voices of soldiers that filled the shops, the towns were strangely quiet.
On the night before the invasion, General Eisenhower and his driver, Kay Summersby, watched rows of C-47 transport planes roar into the sky from an airfield outside Newbury. The planes were heading for Normandy carrying airborne troops. As Eisenhower and Summersby walked back to the car to leave, she noticed tears in his eyes.
General Rommel was celebrating his wife´s birthday in Germany when he heard news that the Allies had landed at Normandy. During the drive back to France, Rommel sat impatiently in the back of his speeding car punching a gloved fist into the open palm of the other gloved hand.
¤ 2) Hardcover Book Ten Days to D-Day: Citizens and Soldiers on the Eve of the Invasion by Little, Brown and Company.
this is one fascinating book which I recommend to anyone interested in WWII. Its uniqueness resides in the way the author approaches D-Day, allowing the reader to get to know how those pre D Day days were lived by civilians, soldiers, secret agents and leaders of the great assault. Now I know what Churchill did , what was on Eisenhower´s mind when he decided what he decided, what de Gaulle thought and how he acted, how the germans were fooled time and time again by allied intelligence, how important secret agents work was for the success of the invasion and it also accounts for the work of many unknown heroes. A great book, a great approach of D Day.¤ 3) Hardcover Book Ten Days to D-Day: Citizens and Soldiers on the Eve of the Invasion by Little, Brown and Company. No doubt one of my favorite books of all time.
I got this book as a birthday present a year or two again, and kept on putting it off. I don´t know why, I´m interested in the war, I just didn´t start it for a while. But when I got into it I knew that I´d love it. It was researched down to... well, let´s just say that if it´s a minute detail that happened back then, it´s in the book. And you can prove it by looking at the bibliography! But the book is so emotional and intense that once you get into it there´s no putting it down. I loved this book and would recommend to anyone.¤ 4) Hardcover Book Ten Days to D-Day: Citizens and Soldiers on the Eve of the Invasion by Little, Brown and Company. David Stafford is an unusual historian. He writes analytical books that study the Second World War, mostly from the perspective of the intelligence war and the partisans. He writes clearly and intelligently, and spends most of his time analyzing the various parts of the war, and their meaning. This book, by contrast, is something that is for Stafford completely different: instead of the intelligence war, and instead of analysis, Stafford instead focuses on showing us the world or a large part of it during the ten days leading up to the D-Day invasion.
The book focuses on various people in various walks of life who did various things during the war. The book is divided into chapters, one for each of the 10 days, the last being D-Day itself. Each of those chapters is divided into sections, each of which highlights the daily life and experiences of someone involved, directly or indirectly, in the war. They range from a Canadian infantry lieutenant and an American paratrooper to a British female code clerk, an SOE operative in France, all the way around to a Jew hiding in someone´s house in France and a Norwegian resister in prison for assisting in the publication of an underground newspaper. Each of these individuals is followed through their daily lives, the soldiers preparing for the invasion, the rest wondering when it would happen.
One really unusual and interesting wrinkle that Stafford manages to incorporate is that the characters he chose to follow weren´t all survivors of the events covered in the book. This involves a little harmless invention of presumed emotions and thoughts, but frankly that´s overshadowed by the uniqueness of what he writes. For instance, one of the pictures in the picture section shows Sherman tanks lined up in an English village, with housewives hanging washing out to dry right next to them.
It´s rather surprising that at this late date someone could write something unique on D-Day and the campaign in France. The fact remains, however, that this is a very unique book, and a very interesting one.¤ 5) Hardcover Book Ten Days to D-Day: Citizens and Soldiers on the Eve of the Invasion by Little, Brown and Company. Most books published about D-Day give scant mention to the background of the invasion, and concentrate on the invasion itself, and its aftermath. This extremely well-written book covers the 10 days that preceeded the invasion, through the lives not only of the important political and military folks involved, but also the common people. We share the lives of paratroopers, ground troops, signal interceptors, spies, prisoners, and others, and learn about their contributions, however small, to the ultimate success of the invasion. It is writing of personal history at its best, and we do get to be informed as to what happened to these people we grew to care about after the invasion. Several of them are still alive, and they, and the multitude of others who have gone to their rest deserve our eternal gratitude for what they all did for us that glorious 6th of June, 1944.¤ 6) Hardcover Book Ten Days to D-Day: Citizens and Soldiers on the Eve of the Invasion by Little, Brown and Company. Ten days before the largest operation of World War II was launched, it was still one of the century´s best-kept secrets-thanks to countless ordinary people participating in one of history´s most remarkable moments. David Stafford has written a riveting account of ten of those ordinary men and women-including an American paratrooper, a German soldier, a nineteen-year-old English woman working on secret codes, a Parisian Jew in hiding, and a daring French resistance cell-as they lived through ten very extraordinary days. Drawing on previously unpublished diaries and letters, Stafford gives readers a fresh point of entry into one of the most significant battles ever fought. Ten Days to D-Day buzzes with the pace of a novel, as Stafford moves from country to country, from character to character, including some of D-Day´s leaders: Hitler, Rommel, Eisenhower, and Churchill. Stafford compellingly brings to life the final days before the invasion through the eyes of its participants, the citizens and soldiers that made history on June 6, 1944.¤ Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 9-Jan-2009, 03166056119780316605618, 170-1X0-000-110-811-901-Q8B-GEB-8 
Ten Days to D-Day: Citizens and Soldiers on the Eve of the Invasion, Book, Image © Little, Brown and Company
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