Overlord : Normandy 1944 - The Politics and Strategy of the Second World War by Jackson, W.G.F.,

Univ. of Delaware Press 1979., US first edition, hard bound in dust jacket, 5 1/2 x 8 1/2, VG/VG- condition ( dj shows some cover wear & is price clipped), 250 pages, maps, bibliog., index. ---------------------------------------Much has been written about D-Day, the Allied landings in Normandy on 6 June 1944. But far less is known about the planning and strategic arguments that occurred on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as those that governed German military thinking on the likelihood, and projected defence, of an Allied invasion of Festung Europa. On Churchills initiative, planning for the re-conquest of Western Europe started as the last British soldiers returned from Dunkirk. Four years later, his vision bore fruit as the greatest amhibious operation since Xerxes crossed the Hellespont on his bridge of boats in 481BC. But was it all necessary? Was there not a quicker and more effective way of bringing Germany to her knees without, as was to happen, surrendering half Europe to Russian Communism? Churchill and the British Chiefs of Staff thought there was; the Americans were adamant that there was not. Within this one volume, General Jackson portrays with great clarity the hard-fought Anglo-American debates, alongside the equally bitter struggles within the German High Command as to how Overlord should be met and defeated. The author examines factors governing the debates, such as the need to aid the hard-pressed Soviet Union and the popular cry for a Second Front, and looks at the Allied campaign in detail. But part of the fascination of the whole story is the hypothetical questions which can be asked but which, because history can never be replayed, can never be fully answered: Would not Vienna have been a better strategic target than Paris? And would not the Mediterranean have provided an easier approach than the heavily fortified and defended English Channel coast?.