Product Description

From the dust jacket

Operation Overlord - the Allied invasion of Northern France in June 1944
was the greatest combined undertaking in the history of warfare.
Up until now it has been recorded almost exclusively from the attackers'
point of view; the story from `the other side of the hill' has largely been
ignored - a situation which has long begged to be rectified.
Drawing upon letters, diaries, first-hand accounts, divisional histories,
newspaper cuttings and official documents, The Germans in Normandy paints a
vivid - and frequently horrific - picture of life for the men who held
Hitler's vaunted Atlantic Wall, men who believed in their cause, and
believed that they could defeat the Allied onslaught.
Belief in victory quickly turned to disappointment. By June 8 1944 it was
clear to every German soldier in the West that the enemy had a foothold on
the shores of France.
What ensued was a bitter struggle as towns and cities such as
Villers-Bocage, Cherbourg, St Lô, Caen and Avranches were thrust into the
front line where men such as Michael Wittman and Kurt Meyer and the ranks
of the 12th SS Panzer Division - the Hitlerjugend - were immortalized.
It all came to naught for the defenders. With the American breakout in late
July, the German line crumbled and was eventually rolled up - culminating
in the horrors of the Falaise pocket, where the core of the Wehrmacht in
Normandy was trapped, the fall of Paris and the wholesale, chaotic
withdrawal of Hitler's forces from France.
At least 60,000 German soldiers, sailors and airmen were killed in the
defence of Normandy. However odious the regime they served was, they fought
bravely, for the most part honourably, and always against overwhelming
enemy material and numerical superiority. This is their story.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #61547 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-21
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

Synopsis
Covers the Allied Invasion (OVERLORD) and breakout from the German Army's viewpoint. This book presents an original treatment of the historic events of June-August 1944 and the result of research with many accounts from both sides.

From the Author
The Germans in Normandy is the first attempt to cover the
invasion of France in 1944 from the German perspective in nearly half a
century.

The book is based upon 15 years' research, drawing upon countless
unpublished diaries, official documents and letters, plus many accounts
never before published in English.

Excerpted from The Germans in Normandy by Richard Hargreaves. Copyright © 2006. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
An extract from the chapter on the battle of the Falaise Gap

... Ewald Klapdor and his men dashed down the gentle slopes and towards the
valley floor. With each salvo from Allied artillery, the Waffen SS men
buried themselves in the ground as best they could. The staff car suffered
a direct hit and blazed uncontrollably, its dead driver behind the wheel.
To stay in open ground was to court death. The remnants of the Frundsberg
headed for the Dives. But not all of them. By now many men were resigned to
their fate. Death or captivity. `For several days now we have been inside
the pocket,' one forlorn medic jotted in his diary. `We are supposed to
fight our way out. Our comrades of the infantry fall like flies. There is
no leadership left. I don't want to fight anyone, it is so useless. God
grant that we get out of this alive.' Near the eastern edge of the pocket,
Klapdor came upon a sunken road. Salvation was maybe a few miles away, but
many men refused to accept it.

There's a scene of devastation - all manner of burned and wrecked vehicles.
Soldiers have dug into the slope's sides so deeply that you fear the holes
will collapse. Some have been killed in their foxholes by splinters from
trees; others crawl into the holes and shelter next to the dead. The floor
of the hollow is littered with the dead. No-one buries them. We have to
clamber our way over the corpses of horses, which already smell.
We order individual soldiers to come with us. But they merely stare at us
not understanding, fear and terror written all over their exhausted faces.
They are simply waiting for the moment that they are led away into
captivity - the moment of salvation.

It was early afternoon when von Lüttwitz reached the River Dives before the
village of St Lambert, a few miles upstream from Trun. The Dives was the
last major natural obstacle barring the Germans' exit from the Falaise
pocket, a few feet deep, a few feet wide. But almost every bridge over the
Dives had been destroyed. At St Lambert, one still stood. Here was the exit
from the Falaise pocket. `The crossing of the Dives was particularly grim,'
Lüttwitz recalled. `Men, horses various equipment was thrown from the
bridge into the Dives where they formed a macabre mess.' The bridge running
into St Lambert was proving to be a bottleneck, as Ewald Klapdor noted:

A vast cemetery of vehicles spreads out in front of the bridge. Blackened,
burned out wrecks, overturned horse-drawn carts, the corpses of horses all
over the place and on top of each other. Leaning against a burned-out heavy
truck there's a motorcycle, its burned rider still sitting on it. Terrible!
Here in front of the Dives bridge, death has reaped a terrible harvest.
Things are no different on the road to the village. Slowly we make our way.
Everywhere there is this sweet smell mixed the smell of something still
burning...

Customer Reviews

From Landsers to Panzers
As a professional battlefield Guide I am always searching for information on the German `enemy' as too often history (as ever) is told by the victors. This is a very good addition to the view from the other side and gives a comprehensive insight into tactical and operational considerations in Normandy (strategic being necessarily a matter for Berlin).
The main focus is on the situation in 1944 and as well as including many invaluable personal accounts of individual soldiers, gives us the command problems of the senior officers. The fallacy that the Atlantic Wall could be adequatly defended by second rate garrison troops when a key component of the defence plan was to deny the landings on the beaches, is clearly shown in the frustrations of the local commanders. That the German Landser fought as well as he did, and indeed the elite formations fought beyond expectations, is clearly brought out in the book. In my opinion a first class reference that is invaluable for understanding Normandy and the German role in one of the deciding campaigns of the war.


Mike McCarthy
Editor, "The Battle Guide"
Guild of Battlefield Guides

Unique achievement
The epic story of D-Day and the battle of France has been told many times before - but not from the German soldiers' point of view.

Now British author Richard Hargreaves has filled the gap with his extraordinary debut The Germans in Normandy.

Using a wide array of sources, the former war correspondent ranges easily between the frontline and centres of military and political power to give a blow by blow account of events.

He tells the story largely in the words of the men who fought - and in many cases, died - in the campaign, as well as those of the German leadership.

It is a first rate, possibly unique, achievement, and the result of 10 years trawling the archives (Hargreaves taught himself German).

Moreover it provides plenty of ammunition for the book's central theme - that the Germans were ultimately defeated by the Allies' massive air superiority.

Almost every soldier quoted by Hargreaves - from generals to Landsers (the German equivalent of Tommies) - lived in fear of the constant air attacks.

German official reports tell how forces racing towards the D-Day beachheads were mauled by fighter bombers - at times the "Jabos" would chase individual soldiers - while the outnumbered and demoralised Luftwaffe was a virtual bystander.

So great was the threat units would often only move at night. Rommel was a casualty when an enemy plane caught his staff car during daylight, leaving the Germans leaderless at a crucial time in the campaign.

And Hitler believed the main counterattack in Normandy failed because it was launched a day too soon - the general gave the order because his forces were being decimated by Allied planes as they gathered for the advance.

It is hard to argue against so much meticulously researched eyewitness evidence. It is this which makes The Germans in Normandy an important book.