Sword Beach
FROM BESTSELLING AUTHOR MAX HASTINGS, A THRILLING BOTTOM-UP STORY OF THE MEN WHO INVADED SWORD BEACH ON D-DAY.
Sword Beach was the north-easternmost of the five areas assaulted by the Anglo-American and Canadian armies on 6 June 1944. The battle zone on and behind Sword witnessed on 6 June some of the most dramatic and tumultuous scenes, the greatest human stories, of the entire war in the West embracing 30,000 paratroopers, infantry, commandos and of course aircrew and sailors – not to mention the German and French participants.
While the Eastern struggle was unremittingly bloody, between 1941 and 1944 the British and American armies had contributed relatively little to the crusade to destroy Nazism. No Russian or German soldier experienced the luxury granted to the British of having four years- and in the case of the US, thirty months- to prepare and train for a resumption of the continental campaign which had been abandoned in June 1940. On 6 June these men experienced, literally overnight, a transition from peace, from years of make-believe battle, to the whitest heat of war. In more than a few cases, the first shots which those men ever heard fired in anger were those which killed them. Also included are the previously little-known stories of the Free French troops, 120 strong, which suffered 60% losses in the first days of fighting.
Although the core facts of Sword Beach are familiar, Max Hastings will explore new angles and fresh personalities in this new history of what was perhaps the supreme military achievement of the Western war. This book will highlight a campaign that marked the beginning of the end of the war, vindication of the long resistance and sacrifices since 1940.
PRAISE FOR OPERATION BITING: -
”'There are few things in life more dependable than a war story told by Hastings… He’s a master of drama, a writer intimately familiar with the mind of the soldier… The Bruneval operation fell into the lap of Lord Louis Mountbatten, the newly appointed commodore of Combined Operations. Hastings, never one to suffer fools, is wonderfully acerbic, calling Mountbatten an 'extreme narcissist' who was attracted to the glory that a successful raid might bring. Hastings is a superb military historian with a delightful talent for gossip… Operation Biting is not a typical war story. War histories are usually studies in failure. So many catastrophic mistakes. So many needless deaths. What a relief then, joy even, to be able to read about a battle with a happy ending and genuine heroes ” - a day that went well'
The Times -
‘An important book, and proof that the detailed telling of a small piece of history can illuminate our understanding of a much greater whole. It’s one in a long line of Second World War books written by Hastings in an engaging and entertaining way. Now that almost all the veterans of the conflict are no longer with us, his work is especially valuable: all that remains is the history, and the historians who tell it' -
Daily Telegraph -
”''Reads like a thriller” - is often said about good non-fiction accounts of war adventures - but in this case, it’s true. I couldn’t put Max Hastings’s new book down, and I couldn’t even bear to look at the mid-book photographs till I’d finished, in case they gave the story away. Hastings is a top-notch writer, who relishes the eccentric brilliance of British wartime boffins, and who knows exactly when to swoop down from the big story and focus briefly on unforgettable human detail'
Daily Mail -