D-Day

Usborne True Stories

by Henry Brook

Tells the stories of the real-life heroes involved in a single day that changed the face of modern history, 6 June 1944 - D-day, the allied invasion of Nazi-occupied Normandy.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, World War II, War, Historical

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up from a bunch of books at a resale shop for 45 cents (what can you buy for 45 cents anymore?). This book includes short stories for Young Adults about D-Day. As it's a British series, most of the stories focused on the Brits in the great battle of June 6, 1944. There is the story of Sergeant Major Stanley Hollis winning the Victoria Cross on Gold Beach. There's Lieutenant Stuart Hills driving his "DD" Sherman tank into the surf, where it quickly begins to sink...We also get the German side with the story of ace tanker SS-Obersturmfuhrer Michael Wittman devastating British forces with his lone Tiger tank. We get better known stories such as that about the Red Devils--the British airborne forces--taking the key bridges on the eastern flank of the D-Day landing beaches. And we have the story of a 19-year-old American soldier experiencing the grim horror of Omaha Beach, the beach that proved to be the bloodiest one, a near-disaster. This book was a very fast read, and reminded me again that the D-Day landings constituted one of the most remarkable achievements in military history. The Allied victory in the end depended on the courage and determination of the individual soldiers.

[Siva Subramaniam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some railway stations in UK has a library section. You can pick any book for free, read it and return it. It is such a good gesture and makes your travel pleasant. I picked up this book on one such station. I am interested towards World War 2 for quite some time. Read books related to it, watched some documentaries, even visited places related to it. I believe World War 2 holds lot of important lessons to humanity. Remember millions of Jews were not killed from Day 1 under Hitler’s regime. It all started very slowly like identifying them, segregating them, blaming them, moving them to detention camps and finally killing them. It is quite disheartening to see that the current Indian government is following the same technique against Indian muslims. Right, politics aside, let’s see about this book.

This book narrates the heroic deeds of 10 people during D-Day landings. For those who don’t know, D-Day is the biggest amphibious landings ever made in human history. If you have seen the first few minutes of the movie ‘Saving Private Ryan’, the director shows you how it was during D-Day in the battle field. The scenes in the film were very accurate that it triggered stress among the World war 2 veterans who watched. I highly recommend you to watch that movie as well. Thousands of boats carrying soldiers, arms, tanks, fighter jets landed on the coast of France to defeat Hitler’s Germany. That was the deciding point of the World War 2. Soon after D-Day landings, Germany lost the war and Hitler committed suicide.

There were many selfless and heroic acts done by various people during that day. The author picks 10 among them and explains their story. Each episode has a back story so that we could connect with the story. The author explains some complex military operations using diagrams which I found quite useful. Some episodes felt like I am watching a movie in my mind while reading the text. Quite enjoyed it. Although this book is targeted towards young-adult, any one can enjoy this book.

[Alger Smythe-Hopkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up because I am always interested in how history is sold to a new generation. For what it is, this volume is competent. Like most YA histories it relies upon uncomplicated heroes and streamlined timelines to tell a sanitized version of events, particularly since this is the greatest generation on their greatest day (to borrow from Tom Brocaw).
To anyone who has read anything about D-Day, very little of this will be fresh. To anyone who saw the film The Longest Day none of this will be fresh. Even the weirdly sticky story that Erwin Rommel coined the term "the longest day" is repeated here. It's a strange thing to have read YA histories written immediately after the war, then read this and realize that the entire D-Day myth has only become more ossified and looms even larger in people's understanding of WWII than it did in the 1990s, when nostalgia for the war was peaking and D-Day was a centerpiece to dozens of films.
I can see this being some fresh mind's entryway to history.

[Pablo · Rating 4 out of 5]

The True Stories of D-Day by Herny Brook is about a soldier named Herny Brook during World War II's Normandy invasion. Before D-Day, Herny trains hard and gets ready for the big mission. Then, on June 6, 1944, he was one of the soldiers landing on the beaches of Normandy. Herny through the chaos of battle, shows how much courage and sacrifice he has by being the group leader and never showing his panic. the book shows that all the soldiers were shocked and freaked out and they tried their hardest to survive instead of trying to fight. but Henry was scared but he was still fighting back and that's what made him stand out. The book did a good job of going into detail about how scary and tough it was for the soldiers as they faced the enemy soldiers firing at them. this book `was very packed for how long it was. it was intense and showed a lot of action. I recommend this book to people who like history or war. I was a little confused with this book but I enjoyed it.

[Kenner C · Rating 4 out of 5]

True stories of D-Day By Henry Brook is about D-Day and what the Americans faced when trying to do an amphibious attack on the Atlantic wall which was controlled by the Germans at that time. The book is nonfiction and is filled with cool facts about D-Day as well as telling some of the story from the Germans perspective. For a nonfiction book it keeps a very good story line and is still very entertaining. Instead of talking about just the day that it happened it tells the entire backstory of what led up to it happening. One of the only things that I didn’t like about the book was it needed more diagrams and pictures, with all of the information it is hard to figure out what is exactly happening during a particular scenario. Another thing that I disliked was that it was hard to figure out when the book changed perspectives making it very confusing to read when perspectives changed frequently. The book as a whole is really good, the clarifications that it has to specific saying and the glossary at the back of the book makes it easy to figure out what the old slang and terms mean.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading about these true and unknown stories from D-Day. This book was laid out really well-- it contained one story from each major locations during D-Day. I especially loved learning more about the British beach, this was a topic I hadn't read much about yet. This would be a more difficult book for junior high because quite a bit of context is necessary to understand all of the stories, but I do think it's a very informative and interesting read.

[Cohen Beachy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think that this book is cool because they have multiple different stories in one book, but I also think that t makes it really confusing. I like the second chapter the most because it has a good story to it. At the beginning of this book, I thought that I would abandon it, but I did not because it started to get my attention.

[Shani · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this with my 10 year old during our nightly reading sessions. It told some of the more obscure D-DAY stories in a way that was age appropriate (not overly horrific in it's details of injuries etc) and was really interesting. A great nonfiction read for an older kid.

[Glenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection of short true stories on the D-Day Landings. Well written, informative and interesting. Recommended

[Dylan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A captivating book of great stories

[Cheri · Rating 4 out of 5]

These individual stories make a visit to Normandy beaches come to life as each story is mentioned in some way in the tour.

[Wilde Sky · Rating 3 out of 5]

A series of true accounts from D-Day.

Some of the pieces were good, but this book lacked depth and the writing was dry.

Reading time around ninety minutes.

[gracepalm · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've always been bad at following books with anything about military strategies (there's a reason I'm not a history major,,,,), so take this rating with a whole salt shaker.

[Goody · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice collection of stories about D-Day and the battle for Normandy

[Sam Raymond · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was good.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some personal touches, telling about particular soldiers. A little graphic for young kids.
D-day from some different perspectives, like the bicycle squad.

[Erin O’Meara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simple history describes the many aspects of D Day. Great for all ages who want to improve their understanding of the attack.

[Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stories of great courage that give a greater understanding of, and insight into, the complexities and horror of war.

[Dylan Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will rate this book 5 stars because it is based on a true stories of D-Day. It had a good story about a big war and the soldiers needed to be brave to face the war. It is like the story of how soldiers prepare for a war. Soldiers find a way to train before the war comes. This book entertains people about a true tale story and it tells about the soldiers bravery. This is the reason why I rate this book 5 stars.

[David Carter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This year (2014) is the 70th anniversary of D-Day, otherwise known as Operation Overlord, the greatest sea borne invasion in history, and destined to remain so, possibly forever.

This 160 page book is a great reminder of the heroism of so many of those guys who set out from ports around here in the south of England bound for the French coast seventy years ago, so many of whom never returned. Many of them were still teenagers!

The book is published by Usborne Publishing who specialise in educational titles and books for the young, and I guess this book is aimed at older children, but it is in no way just for them. Even for seasoned D-Day experts there is plenty here to keep the reader interested.

The book includes the personal stories of brave highly decorated individuals, British, American, and Canadian, who went beyond the call of duty to ensure that the invasion was ultimately a success.

Also included is a number of interesting illustrations by Ian McNee that help to bring the stories so much to life, plus a useful small glossary at the end to keep you up to speed with all the forces jargon prevalent at the time. For example do you know what PIAT’s, BIGOT’s and BAR’s are? And they are nothing to do with after hours drinking either! The glossary certainly helps with all that.

The book is well written, easy to read, educational, and just plain interesting and hard to put down and I can’t recommend it enough. If you want an easy starter book that will tell you and your friends and colleagues what the D-Day landings were all about 70 years ago then “True Stories of D-Day” is certainly the book for you.

You can read an extended review of this book on my website at www.davidcarterbooks.co.uk

[Kyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

So the entire book is focused on a timeline throughout World War II, but emphasizes the results and plans for D-Day. Each story is a unique journal, biography, or recorded attack that puts ordinary men in the limelight and recognizes them for the amazing heroes they are. Each story shares how one man or a group of men saved lives in the hundreds, or put their life on the line before anyone else. Many of these men died and the book helps the reader gain a deep appreciation for the torment these soldiers experienced awaiting D-Day. I highly recommend reading this when you can be wide awake and enjoy the great writing, and the excellent stories (The last two were my favorite). It includes maps, pictures, and definitions for those unfamiliar with war, so don't feel like you need to be a history buff. However, the story does have some graphic imagery and stories, so be sure you or your intended reader can handle some detailed war scenes. This book is excellent, just be sure you have a mature audience to appreciate it.

[Justin Yan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well here I am again with these awesome WWII books. I happened to get this for my birthday quite a while ago and I still find the stories quite interesting. This book fills in all of the cool explanations to events that occurred on D-Day, from the landing on Omaha and several other beaches to the paratroopers touching down by the bridges. I think the best aspect of this book is that it is told in a third person point of view. I am able to learn so much about individual characters in the invasion while having a relaxing time, and not feeling like I'm being prodded while reading one of those monotonous factual books.
The only gripe I have about this book is that I wanted it too be a little longer. I realize this isn't exactly a valid complaint seeing as you can only link so many things together to make the book interesting while providing information. Still a great book and I recommend it to anyone looking for a good book to fill in some gaps regarding the D-Day invasion.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

In "True Stories of D-Day", Henry Brook describes many operations that occurred before, during, and after the time that Operation Overlord took place on the Normandy Beaches in France. Although a majority of the book takes place in a serious tone, some events were amusing and I was very absorbed in the situations of the many Allied Troops who were somehow able to make through the situations despite the hardships that faced them. Personally, I liked the event where a British soldier was able to interact with one of the most feared German Commanders, Erwin Rommel (AKA Desert Fox). I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I believe that this book would be an enjoyable read for history enthusiasts or young adults who would like to know about some of the most unpredictable situations that they would never be able to read about in a text book.

[Raymond Brendalen · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is a book with multiple stories about some heroes of D-day. I rated it 5 stars because of the action and suspense in the stories. It has stories about many heroes who helped win the invasion. I learned a lot about the attack on D-day. I learned that they attacked at many parts of Normandy. I learned about a couple of heroes from D-day. I also learned a lot of new terms they used in the military. Overall it's a great book and I hope you have a great time reading it. I recommend it for anyone who is interested in WWII or D-day.

[Thomas Swartout · Rating 5 out of 5]

This historical book revolves around D-Day of WW11. It tells of some great heroes and missions, but also gives amazing information as you are reading it. I learned a lot of information about D-Day(1941-1945) that I had never learned before I read this book. Many soldiers end up dying but dying for their country. It's full of action/adventure and I really recommend it to any boy. After reading this book I rated it 5 out of 5 stars. Seriously, read it!

[Collin Pigors · Rating 4 out of 5]

Masters is a soldier in the British army and is told to performe a dangerous task during the D-Day invasion. He was shot at but due to a weapon failure he could not returne fire, but he is saved. I realy enjoyed reading this book but you can obviously tell because I gave it four stars. if you are a person who likes to learn about history, then this is the book for you.

[Heather Bettinardi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I chose this book to read because I wanted to see its appropriateness for all levels of students and to use it as a teaching tool in the Museum. The books is so far interesting and adds a human touch to the second world war.

[Logan · Rating 5 out of 5]

AMAZING!I have never read a better WW2 book in my youth.This book is about true stories of people fighting to rid the world of tyranny in the time of 1941-1945.Honor this book and the people that have laid their secrets to author's book ideas by reading this sad,horrific,yet awesome book

[Dayna Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of true stories of the Allied invasion of France on D-Day. It is a moving and stirring collection of the exploits of heroes. It accurately describes the odds and difficulties and the overwhelming courage of the Allied forces. A great non-fiction book for boys.

[Brandon Delgado · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before I thought D-day was one giant attack, now I know that it was actually a whole bunch of different missions from rangers to spies. The book really gives details on the stories which makes them more effective.