D Day

by John Gunther

The noted forties reporter's personal account of the Invasion, an important eyewitness document well narrated. Small chips at bottom corners of jacket, else a very good, bright and unclipped jacket in a Brodart cover.

276 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1944

About the author

John Gunther was one of the best known and most admired journalists of his day, and his series of "Inside" books, starting with Inside Europe in 1936, were immensely popular profiles of the major world powers. One critic noted that it was Gunther's special gift to "unite the best qualities of the newspaperman and the historian." It was a gift that readers responded to enthusiastically. The "Inside" books sold 3,500,000 copies over a period of thirty years.

While publicly a bon vivant and modest celebrity, Gunther in his private life suffered disappointment and tragedy. He and Frances Fineman, whom he married in 1927, had a daughter who died four months after her birth in 1929. The Gunthers divorced in 1944. In 1947, their beloved son Johnny died after a long, heartbreaking fight with brain cancer. Gunther wrote his classic memoir Death Be Not Proud, published in 1949, to commemorate the courage and spirit of this extraordinary boy. Gunther remarried in 1948, and he and his second wife, Jane Perry Vandercook, adopted a son.

Reviews

[Dimitri · Rating 3 out of 5]

The most misleading title of '44, since D-Day means operation Husky. Still, Gunther of inside Europe etc. fame in the '30s was so seasoned and polished as a reporter to keep the reader going, half a century after his death. From his improvised arrival at Malta - the place from which no dispatch could be addressed - to his better organized tour among the chaos of post-Mussolini Sicily, interesting anecdotes mere sentences long crop up like grass on concrete.

An absolute highlight is coming ashore with Eisenhower as the only American reporter present and briefly taking cover from enemy fire. He judges Eisenhower well, all disarming charm at the press conference but somehow- solid steel underneath. Monty's mannerisms are as numerous as his careful military capabilities, compared to the easy-going Alexander who comes across as a sort of power behind the throne.

Gunther clearly enjoys the cosmopolitan wealth of Turkey, with German and British periodicals peacefully sharing a bookshelf while no Hungarian blonde at a party is to be trusted...which brings him to the subject of the Axis allies, barely encumbered by a German military presence yet clearly stuck between holding onto donated territories but as fearful as ever of Russia, to the extent of foregoing a declaration of war against the Soviet Union.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very interesting read on the D Day invasion of Italy, not France. Written by a newspaper reporter and subject to war time censors. You can get a feel for how reporters and everyday soldiers, who worked behind the lines, felt about the war and their day to day jobs.