D-Day: Spearhead of Invasion

Ballantine's Illustrated History of World War II / the Violent Century: Battle #1

by Reginald William Thompson

One of the many volumes in the Ballentine War series, this one deals with D-Day and the invasion of France

Genres: History, World War II, Military History

160 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1968

About the author

1904-1977

Reviews

[Joe Krakovsky · Rating 5 out of 5]

The last time I read this book was probably shortly after I bought it, brand new, for a dollar, back in 1972. Being as the 75th anniversary of D-day was upon us, I thought I would read it again, as my small part of the celebration, and in honor of those heroes of days gone by. Now I have read a lot of D-day books between 1972 and now and I'll tell you, this little book gives a good deal of background information usually not mentioned, or only in passing, in heavier tomes. No, it isn't all action, but true to the series, there are a lot of photos and maps.

As every year that goes by there are fewer and fewer D-day veterans left amongst us. One of them, I believe he is 90 now, was not much more than a boy when he jumped as a paratrooper into the darkness over Normandy back in 1944. During this year's celebration he made another jump. Of course he was tethered to another much younger trooper, and it was daylight, but he still did it! I don't know if I would jump out of a perfectly good airplane. I am mentioning him for a reason.

In the book it explains what a close call it actually was during those early hours of the invasion. They had one chance. The die was cast. It was do or die, and many did. One of the things that prevented the German reserves and available armor from counterattacking the crowded beaches were those young men from the three airborne divisions. As so often the case in war, things conspired to wreck havoc to well laid and rehearsed plans. Instead of units landing close together and forming up into well supplied battle groups, the American and British paratroopers ended up scattered all over the country side. Lost and out of contact with their comrades, they never the less tried to carry out their missions. In ones and twos they carried the war to the enemy. Ironically, it was this haphazard free-for-all that confused and tied up many a German unit. There was no identified enemy units, they were just all over the place! This 90 year old man was one of those brave young men just doing his duty in the early hours of D-day.

Before closing there is something else I must mention about this book. The author served in WWII, and the military consultant was none other than Sir Basil Liddell Hart. Those of us who grew up reading books written by men 'who were there' will recognize the name. If you can find a copy, check it out.

[Christopher Rush · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite the potential downfalls inherent to being a first in a series, D-Day by Thompson presents itself as a rather developed introduction to the series and a concise overview of perhaps the world's busiest day ever. One may prepare to be a bit overwhelmed by the data involved (regiment information and the like, mainly), considering the sheer volume of manpower involved in this event, but even in the paragraphs that start to amass loads of numbers, Thompson contextualizes them fairly well and hurries the reader along quickly to more human elements (not to say the numbers of soldiers and their groupings were not "human").

One enjoyable aspect for me was Thompson's emphasis early on concerning the attitudes of the Allies involved, especially the air forces. I can understand their perspective: if they, as heavy bombers, especially, were doing such damage to the Axis powers especially in their infrastructure, why bother with such a massive infantry assault? It's easy for us today to generalize the "highlights" of WW2 and other major historical events, and just assume everyone was like-minded, but Thompson does a good job of bringing to life early on the diverse mindsets going into the battle from both sides (or, all sides, considering the less-than-chummy attitudes of Americans not named Eisenhower to Montgomery and other British generals). The section on Rommel was especially intriguing, as Thompson paints Rommel as a noble, intelligent military mind, and as later entries in the series do, we are lead to feel miraculous intervention alone brought the ending of WW2 how it occurred (despite the occasional comments from Thompson to the effect of a fatalistic approach to an Allied victory).

Thompson brings some aspects of the actual battle to life in a very engaging, first-person, in the action, sort of way. The chapter on the eastern British paratroopers assaults, especially, was very riveting. It was one chapter I wish had more detail but in a positive way, which is an ideal compliment for this series: its best entries make you want to seek out more expansive versions of the subject matter, and while D-Day is as massive a day as humanity has ever seen, this book encourages you to learn even more about it.

[Martin Koenigsberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another charming little book in the Ballantine's Illustrated History of WWII, this book tells as much of the D-day story as possible in a 160 page format. That is to say this book is a very good "amuse bouche" about the topic, a morsel that should give one a stronger appetite for more fully fleshed out tellings of the tale. RW Thompson was a very real correspondent during the Second World War, and tells the story with a little of that urgency, even 30 years later. Thompson focuses on the day itself, without getting too involved in the massive planning/logistical buildup, or the later implications of the assault. The action moves from East to west, and back, several times, a logical way to view such an immense battlefield. Everywhere it is Facts, Pictures and maps/diagrams telling the reader the epic story, with the written part more support than mainstay. This form of storytelling makes this an optimal book for the junior reader, as originally intended back in the sixties when this series began. The Military Enthusiast/Gamer/Modeler will love the pictures and maps, but yearn for deeper content with more anecdotes to improve scenarios/dioramas

[Michael Bistrica · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is part of Ballantine's History of World War 2 and they are some of the best books written about the war. I read this book back in the mid 1970s. For those that don't know the covers were color coded. For D-Day the cover was red. Red meant that the book covered a specific battle of the war that might last a few hours or up to several weeks. D-Day gives the reader a lead into the battle and a view from both sides, Allies and German. The book has numerous photos of the battle and several maps that make it easier to follow the narrative. At roughly 160 pages it provides a good detail of the 24 hours of 6 June 1944.

[Zander Bean · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think that this book was very good, I liked how all the pictures were real and were pretty good places to be taken them, I liked all the facts. This book was very good and would definitely recommend.

[Lacee Peebles · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read D-Day spearhead of invasion by Reginald William Thompson. This book is about D-Day and how the U.S. took over the beach and started to move inland to stop the Germans. It tells the story of what happened on D-Day and about the invasion. D-Day is a good book helping explain and entertain people about the war, trying to stop the Holocaust.

The purpose Reginald William writing this book is to inform and entertain readers about the invasion. He explained the hard work it took and deadly battle of invading and taking over the beach. I think his goal was to give people more knowledge as to what happened on D-Day, and how difficult it was. He wanted people to understand and feel and know how terrible the Holocaust was, and how hard it was to stop Hitler and the Holocaust.

The theme of this book is that is to inform people and remind them and never let them forget what terrible things, and how many lives were lost on D-day. The pictures in this book showed me how many people were willing to risk their lives and possible die trying to save others from torture, trying to save them from the Holocaust. The theme is to never let anyone today forget about what happened. We should also never forget about the courage and bravery of the victims of the Holocaust and the lives that were lost, and the lives that were risked. That's my opinion on what I think the theme of this book is.

This book was wrote narration style. It's narration style because it told the story of the war, and them taking over the beach, then moving inland to defeat the Germans. The book explained the process of the war. Narration style tells a story about something, and that's what D-Day Spearhead of Invasion did.

This book was okay, World War 2, the Holocaust, etc, doesn't interest me. The book was good, in my opinion, but it's not my type of book. I would recomend this book to anyone with the interest of the Holocaust, World War 2, or wars in general. Something I liked about this book, is the pictures and the captions explaining the pictures, it helped understand what happened. That's my opinion of the book D-Day Spearhead of Invasion.

[Noah Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read the book, "D-Day: Spearhead of Invasion" by R.W.Thompson. I believe the authors purpose of writing this book is to tell people about D-Day. How it affected our country during World War 2. D-Day was known as "Dooms Day", it was a day that many soldiers who fought that day died. Not many soldiers survived this tragic day of death and destruction.

The theme of this book is, D-Day was one of the worst events that happened during World War 2, and that day will never be forgotten.


This story was written in first person. The first person narrator was mainly the story teller of this Book.

I really liked this book because I learned about D-Day. I'm a big fan of reading books about World War 2 and other war related stories. I would recommend this book to people who like to read about World War 2 and events that happened during that time.

[LouGS · Rating 4 out of 5]

Muy buen documento histórico, con gran cantidad de fotografías de la época con su pie de foto cada una, multitud de datos de carros de combate, unidades, estrategias militares, flota marina, personajes célebres que participaron y mucho más que narran paso a paso y de una manera excepcional lo que fue el desembarco de Normandía y todos sus prolegómenos.

[Rat Boy Hedonist · Rating 3 out of 5]

it was like i was actually reading a newspaper from the wartime lol!!!!!!!