Advocating Overlord: The D-Day Strategy and the Atomic Bomb

by Philip Padgett

“Well there it is. It won’t work, but you must bloody well make it,” said the chief of Britain’s military leaders when he gave orders to begin planning for what became known as Operation Overlord. While many view D-Day as one of the most successful operations of World War II, most aren’t aware of the intensive year of planning and political tension between the Allies that preceded the amphibious military landing on June 6, 1944. This intriguing history reveals how President Franklin D. Roosevelt, while on a fishing trip in the middle of World War II, altered his attitude toward Winston Churchill and became an advocate for Operation Overlord.

Philip Padgett challenges the known narrative of this watershed moment in history in his examination of the possible diplomatic link between Normandy and the atomic bomb. He shows how the Allies came to agree on a liberation strategy that began with D-Day—and the difficult forging of British and American scientific cooperation that produced the atomic bomb. At its core this story is about how a new generation of leaders found the courage to step beyond national biases in a truly Allied endeavor to carry out one of history’s most successful military operations.

 
 

Genres: History

416 pages, Hardcover

Published May 1, 2018

About the author

Philip Padgett examines history by applying skills developed during 40 years of national security and homeland security research and analysis. He supported from Washington teams negotiating five international arms control treaties and agreements. Phil’s analyses of the East-West military balance, nuclear doctrine, NATO, and arms control monitoring were used by senior leaders for insight into emerging concerns and as bridges between national policy and technology. Phil earned his Bachelor and Masters Degrees at University of Maryland University College. A Navy veteran, he resides in Kensington, Maryland. "Advocating Overlord" is his first book.

Reviews

[James Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A war was waged before D-Day. It didn't involve troops, tanks, or bombers, but planners, ostensible allies, battling for supremacy after the war's conclusion. The West vs. the Soviet Union? No, this fight was between Britain and her former colony, the United States. Would the United Nations, as they were known, follow the British plan for a war of attrition, capturing territory around the Mediterranean to preserve empire post-war, or the American plan to launch a dangerous amphibious attack on Northern Europe through France, strike into the heart of the Reich, and then move to end the war in the Pacific Theater? As Philip Padgett, who's spent a lifetime working on national security issues, shows, there was more at stake than differing post-war goals. His research suggests that these crucial decisions hinged on control of the atomic genie, that Britain and the US fought through mutual suspiciousness to engage in an ever-shifting game of quid-pro-quo, led by two of the wiliest political figures of our age. Padgett not only knows his subject, but he has also turned what could have been an esoteric study of policy and planning into a page-turner as gripping as any spy novel. Although we know the outcome--or think we do--the story contains some surprising twists. It is essential reading at a time when the Atlantic Alliance that Churchill and Roosevelt created is being upended by a leader with little understanding or appreciation of this history and a conviction that it is no longer in America's interests.

[Philip Padgett · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Advocating Overlord" is the first book length exploration of how in 1943 two separate but equally tough Anglo-American negotiations came into close proximity to become the two parts of a likely quid pro quo between Churchill and Roosevelt. Evidence for the quid pro quo is circumstantial, but very extensive and, to the author, persuasive. The book is carefully based on eight years of research among primary documents in the U.S., U.K., and Canada.