A (Late) Book Recommendation For D-Day

As the saying goes, History is written by the winners and that’s obviously true for World War II and an event as seminal as D-Day.

We found a book on Amazon called D-Day Through German Eyes and it’s not like anything we’ve ever read about June 6, 1944. Unfortunately we weren't able to post it on the 6th.

The guy who put it together didn’t write it. His grandfather did the work but died before he could finish. He was a German war correspondent and he spent a lot of time looking at the Atlantic defenses. Ten years after D-Day he tried to track down some of the soldiers that he met and recorded their reactions to the Allied Invasion.

You would obviously expect the awful randomness of war, but aside from that, there’s a lot of historical value in these accounts. You learn about the German perception of the local French, their awareness of slave labor, differing attitudes (at least in hindsight) about the Nazi regime, a lot about how they dealt with each other and of course the reaction to the invasion.

One soldier noted that the Americans were entirely mechanized and had no horses. We thought of ourselves as still emerging from the depression; he saw us as unbelievably rich.

Another just recounted looking out at the ocean and being overwhelmed at the size of the armada.

For anyone interested in history, it’s a valuable insight into how German soldiers lived and fought as the Allies came for them and, in spots, a reminder of why that had to be done.