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D-Day: Storming Fortress Europe
D-Day
is a vibrant and evocative graphic novel exploring the events of the pivotal Normandy Landings from the perspective of the soldiers on the ground.
June 6, 1944: a vast armada stands off the coast of Normandy; in the pre-dawn gloom gliders carrying British airborne troops approach their target. The first shots are about to be fired in "the Great Crusade" to free Europe from Nazi occupation and thousands of troops will fight their way ashore in the teeth of deadly machine-gun and artillery fire from the German defenders. D-Day is about to begin.
The Normandy landings are brought alive in this electrifying graphic novel that tells the story of that Longest Day through the eyes of the men who were there. Discover an epic struggle as the Allies sought to overwhelm the German defenders by land, sea, and air, who in turn battled desperately to drive the invasion back into the sea. Covering the full range of events from the earliest airborne assault through the struggle on the beaches and the desperate effort to establish a bridgehead inland, D-Day blends an authentic historical narrative with master illustration to reveal the full story of the day that changed the course of World War II.
June 6, 1944: a vast armada stands off the coast of Normandy; in the pre-dawn gloom gliders carrying British airborne troops approach their target. The first shots are about to be fired in "the Great Crusade" to free Europe from Nazi occupation and thousands of troops will fight their way ashore in the teeth of deadly machine-gun and artillery fire from the German defenders. D-Day is about to begin.
The Normandy landings are brought alive in this electrifying graphic novel that tells the story of that Longest Day through the eyes of the men who were there. Discover an epic struggle as the Allies sought to overwhelm the German defenders by land, sea, and air, who in turn battled desperately to drive the invasion back into the sea. Covering the full range of events from the earliest airborne assault through the struggle on the beaches and the desperate effort to establish a bridgehead inland, D-Day blends an authentic historical narrative with master illustration to reveal the full story of the day that changed the course of World War II.
328 pages, Paperback
First published January 21, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
February 9, 2022
"Gentlemen, we are being kill on these beaches. Follow me, and let us go inland and be killed! . . . Rangers, lead the way!" -- Major General Norman 'Dutch' Cota, U.S. 29th Infantry Division - later referred to as the "oldest, baddest, and most overlooked" hero of D-Day by the New England Historical Society
The historical graphic novel D-Day: Storming Fortress Europe - the first in a new series called Under Fire, which will detail notable WWII battles - presents the large-scale Allied beachfront and airborne invasion (also known as 'Operation Overlord,' involving contingents of American, British/Scottish, and Canadian soldiers) of the heavily Axis-occupied shores at Normandy, France on 6 June 1944. I know this book is 1.) meant with the best of intentions, 2.) covering an important topic and 3.) is more intended for a teenage / young-adult audience, but - like another GR reviewer noted - it is just missing a certain something that would make it really good. (Although film is quite the different medium, director Steven Spielberg's early twenty minutes of Saving Private Ryan was an absolutely indelible segment depicting the heavily-combined confusion, horror, and action of said invasion.) Maybe it needed an omniscient narrator to help the flow, or some better delineation of the involved personnel - General Cota, mentioned above, was one of the few exceptions - but this seemed to be a little too watered-down and/or rigidly straightforward interpretation of the events.
The historical graphic novel D-Day: Storming Fortress Europe - the first in a new series called Under Fire, which will detail notable WWII battles - presents the large-scale Allied beachfront and airborne invasion (also known as 'Operation Overlord,' involving contingents of American, British/Scottish, and Canadian soldiers) of the heavily Axis-occupied shores at Normandy, France on 6 June 1944. I know this book is 1.) meant with the best of intentions, 2.) covering an important topic and 3.) is more intended for a teenage / young-adult audience, but - like another GR reviewer noted - it is just missing a certain something that would make it really good. (Although film is quite the different medium, director Steven Spielberg's early twenty minutes of Saving Private Ryan was an absolutely indelible segment depicting the heavily-combined confusion, horror, and action of said invasion.) Maybe it needed an omniscient narrator to help the flow, or some better delineation of the involved personnel - General Cota, mentioned above, was one of the few exceptions - but this seemed to be a little too watered-down and/or rigidly straightforward interpretation of the events.
July 15, 2020
Well written and well plotted. This is a good graphic novel that could of been great if it would of done just a bit more perhaps and overarching narrator. It also emphasizes the french resistance a little bit more than it deserved but even with these minor complaints I think the author/artists took a risk with this type of comic and mostly succeeded. This would be a good comic to give to a young adult that is interest in this portion of history.
May 25, 2026
I have always been of the opinion that education should be carried out by all available means. This includes everything from formal lectures to comic books. Graphic novels have been and continue to be an effective way to teach topics from the routine to the critical. When the Allies landed on the beaches of Normandy in 1944, history was literally being made by the minute. Many of those events are captured very well in this graphic novel.
Given that the invasion proved to be a success, the fact that it could have gone differently is often lost in the explanations of victory. One of the most fortunate aspects of the invasion was that German Field Marshall Erwin Rommel, the leader of the German forces, was away from the Atlantic front on leave. It was his wife’s birthday and so he was hundreds of miles from the action. Had he been there, Rommel was the only one who could have ordered an immediate counterattack by the German Panzer forces. That counterattack could have succeeded and the Allied forces on the ground could have been defeated and captured.
Using brutal imagery and reporting the dark humor of many of the troops, the organized chaos and brutality of the fighting are recounted. There is also a recurring theme of how the Scottish troops moved forward under fire to the accompaniment of a man on bagpipes.
There is no question that one of the most significant historical days of the twentieth century was June 6, 1944. This book is a reasonably in-depth treatment of how the Allied soldiers did their duty, fighting against entrenched German forces, moving bravely against a determined enemy. It could serve as a textbook in history classes.
Given that the invasion proved to be a success, the fact that it could have gone differently is often lost in the explanations of victory. One of the most fortunate aspects of the invasion was that German Field Marshall Erwin Rommel, the leader of the German forces, was away from the Atlantic front on leave. It was his wife’s birthday and so he was hundreds of miles from the action. Had he been there, Rommel was the only one who could have ordered an immediate counterattack by the German Panzer forces. That counterattack could have succeeded and the Allied forces on the ground could have been defeated and captured.
Using brutal imagery and reporting the dark humor of many of the troops, the organized chaos and brutality of the fighting are recounted. There is also a recurring theme of how the Scottish troops moved forward under fire to the accompaniment of a man on bagpipes.
There is no question that one of the most significant historical days of the twentieth century was June 6, 1944. This book is a reasonably in-depth treatment of how the Allied soldiers did their duty, fighting against entrenched German forces, moving bravely against a determined enemy. It could serve as a textbook in history classes.
June 15, 2024
Look, I'm a WWII buff, I'll read just about anything related to it. A blurb in this graphic novel says it has "vivid illustration" and "expert storytelling." Whoever wrote that must have been looking at something different, because this graphic novel was laughably bad.
The "story" is all over the place, with so many different characters that all look the same that you can never remember what's going on when it switches perspectives. Whoever made that decision needs to rethink their career. This would have been a lot better if it was split up in scenarios (maybe by beaches or by operations) and focused on a specific character or group of them. The "art" is so amateur and cheap for 90% of it, and while there are some truly well-done pieces, they are few and far between. Don't waste your time on this, even if you're the most hardcore history nut.
1.5/5, rounded up to 2 because while most of the art in here isn't great, there are a few standout panels.
The "story" is all over the place, with so many different characters that all look the same that you can never remember what's going on when it switches perspectives. Whoever made that decision needs to rethink their career. This would have been a lot better if it was split up in scenarios (maybe by beaches or by operations) and focused on a specific character or group of them. The "art" is so amateur and cheap for 90% of it, and while there are some truly well-done pieces, they are few and far between. Don't waste your time on this, even if you're the most hardcore history nut.
1.5/5, rounded up to 2 because while most of the art in here isn't great, there are a few standout panels.
February 22, 2022
Honestly, I LOVED the artwork, but the story was shabby. It focused on too many different people. I am a WWII history buff/enthusiast, so I could keep track of everything. Also, I had JUST read D-Day by Alex Kershaw (read it, seriously, so good!), and in that book, it had a much more comprehensive story of each of the characters actually listed in this book.
I thought the author should have chosen 2 MAYBE 3 people to focus on in this and not try to explain every single thing that was going on. Operation Overlord was a HUGE undertaking, but it's very overwhelming to try to see it as a "big picture". It's much easier to do a piece at a time and then form that up over time when you read stuff. Anyway, just my opinion that the way it was written was a mistake, but again, the artwork was GREAT!
I thought the author should have chosen 2 MAYBE 3 people to focus on in this and not try to explain every single thing that was going on. Operation Overlord was a HUGE undertaking, but it's very overwhelming to try to see it as a "big picture". It's much easier to do a piece at a time and then form that up over time when you read stuff. Anyway, just my opinion that the way it was written was a mistake, but again, the artwork was GREAT!
March 12, 2022
At times the art looked quite amateurish and hastily drawn. Cheap is the word that comes to mind.
The story was all over the place. Too many characters and angles and beaches and what not. The undertaking was just too ambitious and tried to cover too many stories and things in too few pages.
The story was all over the place. Too many characters and angles and beaches and what not. The undertaking was just too ambitious and tried to cover too many stories and things in too few pages.
January 5, 2020
sometimes the panels read right to left and other times, reads left to right. A bit annoying....
March 17, 2020
Well-written, well-drawn, great stories.
February 4, 2020
I'm increasingly interested in books and comics that do things a little differently and take risks. Part of a comic series devoted to exploring aspects of the second world war, Storming Fortress Europe certainly takes risks and, in fact, almost succeeds in them. A few tiny tweaks would turn this into something rather special. It doesn't have to be anything remarkable; a little note at the end, explaining what happens to the characters we meet would suffice, or a tiny bit more contextual grounding in the comic itself would work wonders. At present, it's a rather boy's own adventure that feels a little disconnected from the truth it wants to tell. That's not to say that it does that badly - because it doesn't. Some of it is frankly moving, and very well handled. It just needs some more rooting to make it deliver on the brilliance that this format and approach offers. A promising start, but one that needs a little more work.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews