D-Day 'Neptune', 'Overlord' and the Battle of Normandy: Insights into how science, technology and engineering made the Normandy invasion possible

by Jonathan Falconer

The landing of Allied forces on the shores of Normandy on 6 June 1944 was the greatest amphibious invasion in history. Technology and innovation played crucial parts in the D-Day drama – from tank-carrying gliders, swimming tanks and the Mulberry harbors, to radio and radar aids that ensured landing craft arrived on the right beaches and combat aircraft overhead were controlled. This manual describes the development, construction and use of a wide range of innovative machines, structures and systems, explaining their uses on D-Day and after, and revealing how they contributed to the success of ‘Overlord’.

Genres: Military History, History

184 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2013

Reviews

[Robert Hepple · Rating 2 out of 5]

First published in 2013, 'D-Day Operations Manual' is a novelty Haynes manual all about the key technology used in D-Day, the invasion of Normandy in June 1944 and the campaign that followed. There is a lot of detail about specialist naval craft, artificial harbours, specialised armoured vehicles, and gliders, supported by masses of illustrations. Because the focus is on the technology, there is little about the campaign or the operation itself. As well as that, I found that the technology aspect suffered from a lack of focus and was often a very difficult read. The profuse illustrations suffered at times from sloppy captioning. Not one of the best, but interesting enough.