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William Collins Sword D-Day Trial by Battle.
William Collins Sword D-Day Trial by Battle ABISBOOK William Collins.
400 pages, Hardcover
Published May 8, 2025
12 people are currently reading
53 people want to read
About the author
Max Hastings
112 books1,720 followersSir Max Hugh Macdonald Hastings, FRSL, FRHistS is a British journalist, editor, historian and author. His parents were Macdonald Hastings, a journalist and war correspondent, and Anne Scott-James, sometime editor of Harper's Bazaar.
Hastings was educated at Charterhouse School and University College, Oxford, which he left after a year.After leaving Oxford University, Max Hastings became a foreign correspondent, and reported from more than sixty countries and eleven wars for BBC TV and the London Evening Standard.
Among his bestselling books Bomber Command won the Somerset Maugham Prize, and both Overlord and The Battle for the Falklands won the Yorkshire Post Book of the Year Prize.
After ten years as editor and then editor-in-chief of The Daily Telegraph, he became editor of the Evening Standard in 1996. He has won many awards for his journalism, including Journalist of The Year and What the Papers Say Reporter of the Year for his work in the South Atlantic in 1982, and Editor of the Year in 1988.
He stood down as editor of the Evening Standard in 2001 and was knighted in 2002. His monumental work of military history, Armageddon: The Battle for Germany 1944-1945 was published in 2005.
He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Sir Max Hastings honoured with the $100,000 2012 Pritzker Military Library Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing.
Hastings was educated at Charterhouse School and University College, Oxford, which he left after a year.After leaving Oxford University, Max Hastings became a foreign correspondent, and reported from more than sixty countries and eleven wars for BBC TV and the London Evening Standard.
Among his bestselling books Bomber Command won the Somerset Maugham Prize, and both Overlord and The Battle for the Falklands won the Yorkshire Post Book of the Year Prize.
After ten years as editor and then editor-in-chief of The Daily Telegraph, he became editor of the Evening Standard in 1996. He has won many awards for his journalism, including Journalist of The Year and What the Papers Say Reporter of the Year for his work in the South Atlantic in 1982, and Editor of the Year in 1988.
He stood down as editor of the Evening Standard in 2001 and was knighted in 2002. His monumental work of military history, Armageddon: The Battle for Germany 1944-1945 was published in 2005.
He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Sir Max Hastings honoured with the $100,000 2012 Pritzker Military Library Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 22, 2025
Ever since "Saving Private Ryan the Allied invasion of France on D-Day has had a renewed level of fascination (particularly for middle-aged men like me... it's either this or smoking meat!). That said, the main interest tends to be on the Utah & Omaha fronts (that is the US ones), with a general feel that the English either had it easier, or were less effective.
Author, Journalist and historian Max Hastings takes a detailed look at every element of the landing on Sword beach. What did the English do well? Did Commander Montgomery have unrealistic expectations? Were there cultural elements that put a separation between officers and enlisted men? What about Hobarts funniesThis is a meticulous work that doesn't shy away from asking critical questions that can only be asked comfortably, now that the original combatants are no longer here. At the same time, Hastings does a great job of placing the uncomfortable elements within the bigger framework of the largest amphibioius assault in history, and one of the most audacious moments of the 20th Century.
Well worth a read for any WWII fan.
Author, Journalist and historian Max Hastings takes a detailed look at every element of the landing on Sword beach. What did the English do well? Did Commander Montgomery have unrealistic expectations? Were there cultural elements that put a separation between officers and enlisted men? What about Hobarts funniesThis is a meticulous work that doesn't shy away from asking critical questions that can only be asked comfortably, now that the original combatants are no longer here. At the same time, Hastings does a great job of placing the uncomfortable elements within the bigger framework of the largest amphibioius assault in history, and one of the most audacious moments of the 20th Century.
Well worth a read for any WWII fan.
January 12, 2026
A very clear and fair account of the Sword beach landing and the following battles on the 6th. The conclusion is very interesting as it appraises what went right and what didn't. Hastings argues that it was unrealistic to expect to take Caen on the 6th, and even if they had they would not have been able to hold on to it. The main goal was to protect the beach landing area which successfully achieved.This complements Stephen Fisher's book which has more detail on the actual landing.
October 2, 2025
very dry History of sword beach, not the best dday book
October 11, 2025
Audiobook. Excellent researched and written.
November 27, 2025
Very good overview, however hard to follow at times due to cutting to so many individuals back and forwards.
clearly extremely well researched.
clearly extremely well researched.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews