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Martin W. Bowman

This is the third volume of a comprehensive five part work, detailing every aspect of air and paratroop operations on the night of 5/6 June 1944. The 6th Airborne Division was to support British Second Army and First Canadian Army; its task was to seize and hold the left flank of the bridgehead. The 5th Parachute Brigade was to seize the ground each side of the bridges over the Canal du Caen and the Orne River, whilst on the same day seize and hold positions on the long wooded ridge beyond the waterways, running from Troarn in the south to the sea. This ridge with the bridges behind would eventually form the critical left flank of the army and the bridges had to be intact to permit Allied troops and supplies to pass easily back and forth. The 3rd Parachute Brigade, which included the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion (1,800 men) was to prevent enemy reinforcements moving towards the British beachhead. Another Battalion and the 1st Canadian Brigade had to destroy five bridges in the flooded valley of the Dives. The 9th Battalion had to silence a battery of four concrete gun emplacements on high ground near the village of Merville, 3 miles east of Ouistreham. For these tasks 38 and 46 Groups RAF dispatched 264 aircraft and 98 glider combinations, the glider tugs being Albemarles, Dakotas, Halifaxes and Stirlings, the gliders mainly Horsas with a few Hamilcars (carrying light tanks and 17-pounder anti-tank guns). Meanwhile, Brigadier Lord Lovats 1st Special Service Brigade, composed of four Army and one Royal Marines Commando, reached Pegasus Bridge en route to help other units of the Airborne Division. Allied intelligence had pinpointed 73 fixed coastal gun batteries that could menace the invasion. At Pointe-du-Hoc, a cliff rising 100 feet high from a very rocky beach, a six-gun battery which potentially could engage ships at sea and fire directly onto Utah and Omaha was taken by three companies (225 men) of the US 2nd Ranger Battalion using rocket propelled grapple hooks attached to climbing ropes and portable extension ladders to scale the cliffs within ten minutes after landing and capture the position. This dynamic episode in the history of D-Day is expertly researched and relayed with both style and reverence for the aircrew who participated in proceedings. A plate section of rare black and white images supplement the text, working further to create a real sense of the times at hand at this most pivotal point in the history of D-Day.

Pen & Sword Aviation

Air War D-Day

Winged Pegasus and the Rangers

For the Allies as well as Germany, it will be the longest day'. So said Field Marshall Erwin Rommel of the operations on D-Day; and he was correct. This is the first volume of a most impressive tribute and comprehensive five-part work that includes a multitude of personal military and civilian accounts of the aerial operations which were carried out on D-Day. At fifteen minutes after midnight on 6 June 1944 Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Hitlers Festung Europe, became reality. The logistics of landing almost 250,000 men by amphibious craft seems almost unimaginable, yet a massive aerial umbrella of 3,000 RAF and USAAF fighters, fighter-bombers and heavy bombers, headed for France and more than 1,000 transport aircraft dropped more than 17.000 paratroopers to secure the flanks and beach exits of the assault area. Air superiority in the invasion areas was total. It was a day that changed the whole course of the war and resulted in the first steps to final victory in Europe. Copious quotes from American and British and Dominion forces, fighting men, sailors, airmen from the occupied countries and their German opponents, tell of incredible, illuminating and often under-stated actions of extraordinary courage, companionship and a common fear of death or serious injury which offer a more personalized view of D-Day. This first volume sets an impressive precedent for the rest of the series.

The Build Up

This is the second volume of a comprehensive five-part work on D-Day that includes a multitude of personal military accounts from both Allied and German Aviation personnel who were there. Overlord began with an assault by more than 23,000 airborne troops, 15,500 of them American, behind enemy lines to soften up the German troops and to secure key objectives. 6,600 paratroopers of the US 101st Screaming Eagles Division in 633 C-47s and 83 gliders and 6,396 paratroopers of the US 82nd All American Division in 1,101 C-47s and 427 gliders were dropped over the neck of the Cotentin peninsula. By the end of the operation, the list of casualties was extensive. But 101st Airborne Division linked up with the US 4th Infantry Division beach landings at Pouppeville, the most southerly exit off Utah Beach and the 82nd secured the area north of Ste-Mre-glise after fierce fighting and drove the enemy north, considerably delaying the German 243rd Infantry Division from contacting the Allied beach assault force. This important episode within the wider history of D-Day is enlivened in classic Bowman fashion, featuring both extensive historical notes as well as deeply personal accounts of endurance and individual gallantry.

Assaults from the Sky

This fourth volume of a comprehensive five part work on D-Day covers every aspect of aerial operations on and behind the beaches at 'Omaha' and 'Utah' beaches on 6 June 1944. It might be imagined that the passing years would blunt the outlines of the experience but the D-Day veterans do not forget. Their accounts convey the chaos, terror and hysteria as the first salvos of German fire clanged off the landing craft, in language that is all the more powerful for its terseness and simplicity.

The landings at 'Omaha' which were vital to connect the US troops at 'Utah' Beach with the British and Canadian beaches to the east were an unmitigated disaster with an estimated 3,000 killed, wounded and missing. The highest number of casualties of all the beaches, they were the greatest American losses in one battle since the Battle of Antietam Creek in the American Civil War in September 1862. 

The situation on the beach was chaotic as troops were pinned down by enemy fire and had to take cover behind mined beach defenses. As things progressed, it was an accumulation of individual acts of self-sacrifice and gallantry which opened up an exit and a seaborne bombardment by the task force saw tenuous footholds finally gained by early afternoon. 

In stark contrast to Omaha, an almost textbook landing was made at Utah; the air bombardment was effective and a strong current actually landed the 4th Infantry Division 2,000 yards south of their intended target where the beach was less heavily defended. This account analyses each aspect of the aerial operation, noting how events on the ground and in the sea impacted upon pilots endeavors in the skies.

Evocative images supplement the text effectively to create a real sense of what it was like for the pilots of D-Day, the individuals who made such a contribution to the Allied war effort in the Second World War.

Bloody Beaches

This is the final volume of a comprehensive five part work, including a multitude of personal accounts of every aspect of the aerial operations on 'Gold' 'Juno and 'Sword' beaches during D-Day. It relays the sense of relief experienced as Allied troops gained a foothold on the continent of Europe after D-Day, both by the men caught up in the proceedings and the jubilant civilians on the home front. By the end of June 875,000 men had landed in Normandy; 16 divisions each for the American and British armies. Although the Allies were well established on the coast and possessed all the Cotentin Peninsular, the Americans had still not taken St Lo, nor the British and Canadians the town of Caen, originally a target for D-Day. German resistance, particularly around Caen was ferocious, but the end result would be similar to the Tunisian campaign. More and more well-trained German troops were thrown into the battle, so that when the Allies did break out of Normandy, the defenders lost heavily and lacked the men to stop the Allied forces from almost reaching the borders of Germany. In continuing style, Bowman pays respect to the men who fought in the skies above France on D-Day. This episode of Aviation history has never before been the focus of such detailed analysis; the five volumes of this series act as a memorial to the individuals who played their own individual parts in the wider proceedings. Far from being a mere operational record, this is the story of the men behind the headlines, the reality behind the iconic images of parachute drops and glider formations.

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