The Battle for Normandy

D-Day

75th Anniversary Edition

THE INTERNATIONAL NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER 
 
'Magnificent, vivid, moving, superb' Max Hastings, Sunday Times 
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This is the closest you will ever get to war - the taste, the smell, the noise and the fear 
 
The Normandy Landings that took place on D-Day involved by far the largest invasion fleet ever known. The scale of the undertaking was awesome and what followed was some of the most cunning and ferocious fighting of the war. As casualties mounted, so too did the tensions between the principal commanders on both sides. Meanwhile, French civilians caught in the middle of these battlefields or under Allied bombing endured terrible suffering. Even the joys of Liberation had their darker side. 
 
Antony Beevor's inimitably gripping narrative conveys the true experience of war. He lands the reader on the beach alongside the heroes whose stories he so masterfully renders in their full terrifying glory. 
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'A thrilling story, with all Beevor's narrative mastery' Chris Patten, Financial Times 
 
'Beevor's D-Day has all the qualities that have made his earlier works so successful: an eye for telling and unusual detail, an ability to make complex events understandable, and a wonderful graphic style' Ian Kershaw, Guardian, Books of the Year 
 
'D-Day's phenomenal success is both understandable and justified' James Holland 
 
'D-Day is a triumph . . . on almost every page there's some little detail that sticks in the mind or tweaks the heart. This is a terrific, inspiring, heart-breaking book' Sam Leith, Daily Mail

A knockout reassessment of one of the Second World War's great set-piece battles. Swoops from the vicious close-quarter fighting in the hedgerows to the petrified French onlookers and onwards to the political leaders wrestling with monumental decisions

Beevor has succeeded brilliantly. D-Day can sit proudly alongside his other masterworks on Stalingrad and the fall of Berlin. Superbly brings the events of that summer to life again

As near as possible to experiencing what it was like to be there. . . It is almost impossible for a reader not to get caught up in the excitement

Impeccable, splendid, thoroughly researched and gripping. Beevor is master of narrative, expertly blending the grand sweep with the telling anecdote

Beevor can be credited with single-handedly transforming the reputation of military history

His singular ability to make huge historical events accessible to a general audience recalls the golden age of British narrative history, whose giants include Gibbon, Macaulay and Carlyle

Antony Beevor is the author of Crete: The Battle and the Resistance (Runciman Prize), Stalingrad (Samuel Johnson Prize, Wolfson Prize for History and Hawthornden Prize), Berlin: The Downfall, The Battle for Spain (Premio La Vanguardia), D-Day: The Battle for Normandy (Prix Henry Malherbe and the RUSI Westminster Medal), The Second World War, Ardennes 1944 (Prix Médicis shortlist) and Arnhem. The number one bestselling historian in Britain, Beevor's books have appeared in thirty-three languages and have sold over eight million copies. A former chairman of the Society of Authors, he has received a number of honorary doctorates. He is also a visiting professor at the University of Kent and an Honorary Fellow of King's College, London. He was knighted in 2017.

The Normandy Landings that took place on D-Day involved by far the largest invasion fleet ever known. The scale of the undertaking was awesome and what followed was some of the most cunning and ferocious fighting of the war. As casualties mounted, so too did the tensions between the principal commanders on both sides. Meanwhile, French civilians caught in the middle of these battlefields or under Allied bombing endured terrible suffering. Even the joys of Liberation had their darker side. 
 
Antony Beevor's inimitably gripping narrative conveys the true experience of war. He lands the reader on the beach alongside the heroes whose stories he so masterfully renders in their full terrifying glory.

Arnhem

THE SUNDAY TIMES #1 BESTSELLER 
 
The great airborne battle for the bridges in 1944 by Britain's Number One bestselling historian and author of the classic Stalingrad 
 
'Our greatest chronicler of the Second World War' - Robert Fox, Evening Standard 
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On 17 September 1944, General Kurt Student, the founder of Nazi Germany's parachute forces, heard the growing roar of aeroplane engines. He went out on to his balcony above the flat landscape of southern Holland to watch the air armada of Dakotas and gliders carrying the British 1st Airborne and the American 101st and 82nd Airborne divisions. He gazed up in envy at this massive demonstration of paratroop power. 
 
Operation Market Garden, the plan to end the war by capturing the bridges leading to the Lower Rhine and beyond, was a bold concept: the Americans thought it unusually bold for Field Marshal Montgomery. But could it ever have worked? The cost of failure was horrendous, above all for the Dutch, who risked everything to help. German reprisals were pitiless and cruel, and lasted until the end of the war. 
 
The British fascination with heroic failure has clouded the story of Arnhem in myths. Antony Beevor, using often overlooked sources from Dutch, British, American, Polish and German archives, has reconstructed the terrible reality of the fighting, which General Student himself called 'The Last German Victory'. Yet this book, written in Beevor's inimitable and gripping narrative style, is about much more than a single, dramatic battle. 
 
It looks into the very heart of war. 
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'In Beevor's hands, Arnhem becomes a study of national character' - Ben Macintyre, The Times 
 
'Superb book, tirelessly researched and beautifully written' - Saul David, Daily Telegraph 
 
'Complete mastery of both the story and the sources' - Keith Lowe, Literary Review

Masterly...illuminated by a host of hitherto unpublished anecdotes and quotations, together with the fruits of his own labors in Dutch archives. A meticulous, wonderfully vivid, and justly angry account of one of the great cock-ups of World War II

This absorbing new account of the battle with the eye for telling detail which we have come to expect from Antony Beevor. . . this time, though, he turns his brilliance as a military historian to a subject not just of defeat, but dunderhead stupidity.

Beevor tells a story that is more human and complex than what he calls "the great myth of heroic failure", a tale of vanity, hubris, occasional incompetence, human frailty and remarkable grit. . . In Beevor's hands, Arnhem becomes a study of national character.

Antony Beevor's magnificent account. . . Beevor's skill lies in his ability to recreate the tumultuous brutality of battle. . . With stark honesty, Beevor describes the terrible panoply.

The analysis he has produced of the disaster is forensic. Aficionados of military history will revel in Beevor's microscopic detail, with every skirmish given its rightful place. . . Beevor's prodigious research has nevertheless unearthed many treasures, particularly his record of the sufferings of Dutch civilians who risked their necks by nursing wounded allied soldiers.

Complete mastery of both the story and the sources. The beauty is in the details. . . . This gripping book, with its tightly focused timescale and subject matter, shows him once again at his very best.

Another masterwork from the most feted military historian of our time. . . Does the story need to be retold? Beevor is such a good writer, with a gift for clarity and a knack for the telling personal portrait, that the answer is undoubtedly yes.

Our greatest chronicler of the Second World War . . . The drama of manoeuvre and counter-thrust, the courage and cowardice of soldier and civilian, the follies and vanities of commanders, which are especially rich in this story, are deployed with colour and humanity. His fans will love it.

As Antony Beevor showed in Stalingrad, he is a master of his craft as a military historian. . . We have here a definitive account of one of the most painful episodes of the Second World War.

It is, in short, a chapter of the Second World War that was crying out for the storytelling talents of Sir Antony Beevor, arguably the finest narrative historian of his generation. This is the result - and his many fans will not be disappointed . . . Beevor's particular skill is his ability to unearth new sources that articulate the experience of war felt by ordinary people: soldiers and civilians, men and women. . . Beevor has produced another superb book, tirelessly researched and beautifully written, that will long be the benchmark for this subject.

Beevor's superlative new book . . . Arnhem sees him return to Stalingrad form. Forensic is too soft a word to describe the breadth of detail he brings.

The compressed time scale and limited strategic scope of Market Garden ideally suit the author's testimony-rich approach . . . Beevor is a highly accomplished architect of what the American literary scholar Samuel Hynes calls 'battlefield gothic': the nightmarish horrors and absurdities of combat

On holiday I read and am wholly absorbed by Antony Beevor's Arnhem. Though I am defeated by much of the military detail, the human side of the action, the troops in the gliders, their fears and all too often their fates, are beautifully told, with some of the bloodshed and killing unbearable

This is destined to be a World War II military history classic . . . Beevor's superb latest offering, in keeping with his established record of excellence, is a must-read

Arnhem brings a wealth of new detail to a major World War II disaster . . . Beevor brings to the familiar story a vast amount of research in German, British, American, Polish, and Dutch archives. As usual, his narrative bristles with specifics, including countless observations gleaned from eyewitnesses to every stage of Market Garden. Devoted readers of military history will enjoy the wealth of details

With devastating command of his subject, Antony Beevor shows how one commander's hubris destroyed an army . . . No one beats Beevor at recreating the bewildering cacophony of war

Arnhem was one of the most epic engagements of WW2 and Antony Beevor gives it his usual excellent and fascinating big battle treatment, which makes for a gripping read

Antony Beevor is the author of Crete, Stalingrad, Berlin, The Battle for Spain, D-Day, The Second World War, and Ardennes 1944. The number one bestselling historian in Britain, Beevor's books have appeared in thirty-two languages and have sold just over seven million copies. He was knighted in 2017.

Operation Market Garden, the plan in 1944 to end the war by capturing the bridges leading to the Lower Rhine and beyond, was a bold concept: the Americans thought it unusually bold for Field Marshal Montgomery. It was the greatest demonstration of paratroop power ever seen - but the cost of failure was horrendous, above all for the Dutch who risked everything to help. German reprisals were cruel and lasted until the end of the war. 
 
The British fascination for heroic failure has clouded the story of Arnhem in myths, not least that victory was even possible. Antony Beevor, using many overlooked and new sources from Dutch, British, American, Polish and German archives, has reconstructed the terrible reality of this epic clash. Yet this book, written in Beevor's inimitable and gripping narrative style, is about much more than a single dramatic battle. It looks into the very heart of war.

Stalingrad

The international mega-bestseller that redefined military history, reissued for the 75th anniversary of one of the bloodiest battles in history

The international million copy bestseller recounting the epic turning point of the WW2 and one of the bloodiest battles in history 
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In October 1942, an officer wrote 'Stalingrad is no longer a town . . . Animals flee this hell; the hardest stones cannot bear it for long; only men endure'. 
 
The battle for Stalingrad became the focus of Hitler and Stalin's determination and its citizens endured unimaginable hardship as a result. But the eventual victory of the Red Army, and the failure of Hitler's Operation Barbarossa, was the first defeat of Hitler's territorial ambitions in Europe, and the start of his decline. 
 
An extraordinary story of tactical genius, civilian bravery, obsession, carnage and the nature of war itself, Stalingrad will act as a testament to the vital role of the soviet war effort. 
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'He reveals the full awfulness and human cost of the conflict with scholarly verve and deep sympathy' Ben Macintyre 
 
'A superb re-telling. Beevor combines a soldier's understanding of war's realities with the narrative techniques of a novelist' Orlando Figes, Sunday Telegraph 
 
'A brilliantly researched tour de force of military history' Sarah Bradford, The Times

'Captivating . . . Jingoistic statues never pay a proper tribute to the dead, but honest books, like this one, certainly do'

Antony Beevor gained access to the unplumbed records, and he reveals the full awfulness and human cost of the conflict with scholarly verve and deep sympathy. The pity of war has seldom been rendered so well

A brilliantly researched tour de force of military history

Antony Beevor's account of this historic turning-point is truly powerful, written with a compelling narrative drive . . . This is a fine achievement

A superb re-telling. Beevor combines a soldier's understanding of war's realities with the narrative techniques of a novelist . . . This is a book that lets the reader look into the face of battle

1944 - 1949

Paris After the Liberation

A remarkable historical account of the celebration and chaos that followed the liberation of Paris in August, 1944

A remarkable historical account of the chaos and uncertainty that followed the liberation of Paris in August, 1944 
 
'A beautifully written book about a vast tapestry of military, political and social upheaval. Remarkably well-researched, wise, balanced, very funny at times' Dirk Bogarde 
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Post-liberation Paris: an epoch charged with political and conflicting emotions. Liberation was greeted with joy but marked by recriminations and the trauma of purges. The feverish intellectual arguments of the young took place amidst the mundane reality of hunger and fuel shortages. This is a thrilling, unsurpassed account of the drama and upheaval of one of history's most fascinating eras. 
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'A dashing, multi-dimensional story. This book covers all aspects of life - diplomacy, strategy, rationing, politics and politicking (from Churchill, Pétain's and de Gaulle's point of view), the international theatricals and the tourist invasion, blitzkrieg and Ritzkrieg' Olivier Todd, Sunday Times 
 
'Absorbing . . . a rich, many-layered account, selecting from official documents, private archives, memoirs and histories with a wonderful lightness of touch, so that the most complex events become clear' Jenny Uglow, Independent on Sunday

A rich and intriguing story which the authors disentangle with great skill

Skilfully balances historical narrative with social analysis, and tempering the appalling with the absurd

Outstanding. Enormously enjoyable to read - exciting, lively, funny, and admirably tolerant and objective in its opinions. It is hard to see how it could have been better done

Held me gripped by every page and I was impatient at any interruption. The details of this book are spellbinding, often frightening and sometimes funny

This book, like the city it discusses, oscillates satisfyingly between blunt history and roistering gossip

Post liberation Paris - an epoch charged with political and conflicting emotions.  Liberation was greeted with joy but marked by recriminations and the trauma of purges.  The feverish intellectual arguments of the young took place amidst the mundane reality of hunger and fuel shortages.  This is a stunning historical account of one of the most stimulating periods in twentieth century French history.

The true story of a family torn apart by revolution and war

The Mystery of Olga Chekhova

A Life Torn Apart By Revolution And War

The true story of a family torn apart by revolution and war, reissued for the 100th anniversary of the Russian revolution.

'An extraordinary drama of exile and espionage' Boyd Tonkin, Independent 
 
'Compelling . . . as engaging a read as Stalingrad and Berlin' Guardian 
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Olga Chekhova was the niece of playwright Anton Chekhov and a Russian beauty. She was also a famous Nazi-era film actress, closely associated with Adolf Hitler. 
 
After fleeing Bolshevik Moscow for Berlin in 1920, she was recruited by her composer brother Lev to work for Soviet intelligence; in return, her family were allowed to join her. By 1945, several of them were trapped in Berlin as the Red Army approached; meanwhile, as Olga had appeared in photographs with Hitler and his entourage, the rest of her family in Moscow were waiting to be arrested by the NKVD secret police. 
 
The dramatic tale of how one family survived through the Russian Revolution, the Civil War, the rise of Hitler and Stalin, and the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union is, in Antony Beevor's hands, a breathtaking tale of glamour and survival. 
 
It's an extraordinary story of extraordinary times. 
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'Fascinating. An intricate, gracefully told and often moving social history of a talented family in times of revolution, civil war, dictatorship and world conflict' Rachel Polonsky, New Statesman

Compelling . . . as engaging a read as Stalingrad and Berlin

Fascinating. An intricate, gracefully told and often moving social history of a talented family in times of revolution, civil war, dictatorship and world conflict

A fascinating spy story, a delicious entertainment, a compelling investigation

An extraordinary drama of exile and espionage

Beevor uses the story to evoke a world - the vague ideological borderlands of Nazism and Communism

Antony Beevor, one of the finest narrative military historians now writing, is a master of revealing vignettes

A true story that is dramatic, evocative, and well worth unearthing

Olga Chekhova was the niece of Anton Chekhov, a stunning Russian beauty and a famous Nazi-era film actress who Hitler counted among his friends. After fleeing Bolshevik Moscow for Berlin in 1920, she was recruited by her composer brother Lev, to work for Soviet intelligence. In return, her family were allowed to join her. 
 
The extraordinary story of how the whole family survived the Russian Revolution, the civil war, the rise of Hitler, the Stalinist Terror, and the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union is a breathtaking tale of compromise and survival in a merciless age. 
 
In Antony Beevor's spellbinding narrative, this single story paints a vivid picture of an extraordinary era.

Hitler's Last Gamble

Ardennes 1944

From the bestselling author of Stalingrad, Berlin and D-Day comes the story of the German's ill-fated final stand. 
 
'Rich in detail and drama. Enthralling' Mail on Sunday 
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On 16 December, 1944, Hitler launched his 'last gamble' in the snow-covered forests and gorges of the Ardennes. He believed he could split the Allies by driving all the way to Antwerp, then force the Canadians and the British out of the war. Although his generals were doubtful of success, younger officers and NCOs were desperate to believe that their homes and families could be saved from the vengeful Red Army approaching from the east. Many were exultant at the prospect of striking back. 
 
 The Ardennes offensive, with more than a million men involved, became the greatest battle of the war in western Europe. American troops, taken by surprise, found themselves fighting two panzer armies. Belgian civilians fled, justifiably afraid of German revenge. Panic spread even to Paris. While many American soldiers fled or surrendered, others held on heroically, creating breakwaters which slowed the German advance. 
 
 The harsh winter conditions and the savagery of the battle became comparable to the eastern front. And after massacres by the Waffen-SS, even American generals approved when their men shot down surrendering Germans. The Ardennes was the battle which finally broke the back of the Wehrmacht. 
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'If you're a fan of Beevor's work, find some space on your bookshelf for this one. If you've never read him before, start here and work your way back - it's history nerd heaven!' History of War Magazine 
 
'Beevor weaves a brilliant narrative out of all this drama. As in his previous books, his gifts are strongest in focusing on telling details from different perspectives . . . A vital historical insight' Sunday Times 
 
'A sweeping, sobering read, written with all the confidence and aplomb that Beevor fans would expect. Beevor is as good on the rows behind the front lines as he is on the battles themselves' Independent

This is World War II as Tolstoy would have described it - the great and the small

Washington Post (on 'The Second World War')

Rightly deserves its place on the shelves of any serious historian of the Second World War. Powerful and authoritative . . . Beevor weaves a masterful narrative based on the viewpoints of a vast range of people. Marshalling a coherent narrative out of an unwieldy sequence of localised attacks, counterattacks, deceptions, and feints demands the attention of a master military historian. In Antony Beevor, the Ardennes offensive has found one

Military History Monthly (Book of the Month)

What leaves a lasting impression is the huge power the American army as a whole mustered to smash back the Germans. A superpower was being born

Unflinching. As Ardennes 1944 makes clear, Hitler misjudged the strength and resilience of the US army. It was his last gamble and it failed

What stands out most . . . is the effects of violent warfare. By the end of the counteroffensive the snowfields were littered with frozen corpses and the wreckage of hundreds of tanks and armoured vehicles

A superb addition to the canon which has taken us from Stalingrad to Normandy in 1944 and the final gruesome battle for Berlin, not forgetting the masterly single-volume history of the entire war. It is written with all of Beevor's customary verve and elegance. His remarkable and trademark ability is to encompass the wide sweep of campaigns yet never forget the piquant details of what happened to the individual . . . He focuses brilliantly on the key moments that turned the battle

As impeccably researched, insightfully observed and superbly written as its bestselling predecessors

If there's one thing that sets Beevor apart from other historians - beyond his gifts as a storyteller - it's that he is not afraid to look at the most uncomfortable, even frightening subjects, but does so in a way that doesn't threaten the reader. It's like having Virgil there to lead you through the underworld: he doesn't leave you stranded amid the horror but leads you back again, a wiser person for having undergone the journey

An indispensable book. It is a great strength of Beevor's writing that he takes time to explain how small pieces of knowledge - the kind of thing passed on by battle-hardened soldiers themselves - could make the difference between survival and a futile death

A portrait of war . . . startling in its detail. Beevor has the art of preserving the individual perspective on the battlefield while placing it among the perspectives of platoon, regiment, division, commanders, politicians and civilians. This book clarifies, without simplifying, the human experiences and political stakes of the battle for the Ardennes Forest, bringing realism to the battlefield and coherence to the larger history of the war

Formidable . . . Beevor is a field marshal of facts. Under his brisk control the story of Hitler's final gamble is another example of the kind of action-packed, densely informed narrative that has proved such a formidable model

On 16 December 1944, Hitler launched his 'last gamble' in the snow-covered forests and gorges of the Ardennes on the Belgian/German border. Although Hitler's generals were doubtful of success, younger officers and NCOs were desperate to believe that their homes and families could be saved from the vengeful Red Army approaching from the east. The Ardennes offensive, with more than a million men involved, became the greatest battle of the war in western Europe. 
 
In January 1945, when the Red Army launched its onslaught towards Berlin, the once-feared German war machine was revealed to be broken beyond repair. The Ardennes was the battle which finally broke the Wehrmacht.

Antony Beevor

Fascinating, extraordinary, gripping

A masterpiece of modern historical writing

This brilliant storyteller makes us feel the chaos and the fear as if every drop of blood was our own. It is much more than just a humane account; it is compellingly readable, deeply researched, and beautifully written

Antony Beevor

Books by Antony Beevor

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