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Countdown to D-Day: The German Perspective: The German High Command in Occupied France, 1944 (Latin America at War) Kindle Edition

by Peter Margaritis (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 123 ratings
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A WWII historian takes readers inside the day-to-day drama of Nazi military commanders in occupied Europe as they brace for the Allied invasion.
 
In December of 1943, with Allied forces planning to invade Fortress Europe, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel is named General Inspector of the Atlantic Wall. His mission is to assess their readiness, and what he finds disgusts him. The famed Atlantikwall is nothing but a paper tiger, woefully unprepared for the forces being massed across the English Channel. His task—to turn back the Allied invasion—already seems hopeless.
 
The crust old theater commander, Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, awaits the inevitable defeat from a plush villa outside Paris. The corps commander on the ground in Normandy attempts to fulfill Rommel’s demands, but supplies are woefully inadequate. Meanwhile, all focus is on defending the coastline at Calais—the area that High Command believes to be the Allies’ most likely objective.
 
All of the Western Theater commanders are subject to the whims of Adolf Hitler, hundreds of miles away and issuing orders that are increasingly divorced from the reality of the war. Countdown to D-Day takes a detailed day-to-day journal approach tracing the daily activities and machinations of the German High Command as they try to prepare for the Allied invasion.
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  1. Part of series
    Latin America at War
  2. Print length
    1079 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  5. Publisher
    Casemate
  6. Publication date
    January 4, 2019
  7. File size
    6760 KB
  8. Page Flip
    Enabled
  9. Word Wise
    Enabled
  10. Enhanced typesetting
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From the Publisher

countdown to d-day german perspective wwii new york journal of books casemate

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A good read for anyone interested in D-Day..."
The NYMAS Review

‘’Simply grandiose and indispensable! And yes, seventy-five years after the events, it is still possible to publish an innovative book on the D-Day landings. And yet, no revelation, no sensational announcement. To devour, provided you read English! Essential to a library on the subject...’’
3945km.com

"With vast depth, this is a very impressive look at what happened in the run up to D-Day, from the German side."
Armourer

“Detailed and comprehensive, Countdown to D-Day should be a standard work on what the Germans did and did not accomplish to meet ‘The Longest Day.’”
Jerry Lenaburg, New York Journal of Books

"I can easily recommend this book for any World War II aficionado, be it for Rommel fans, students of D-Day history or the military-political side of the war in the West, or simply for the greater understanding the book imparts on the vast undertaking that was Fortress Europa."
ARMOR

"Well researched, this book does provide fascinating insights into the tense and complex relationships between the German High Command."
The Military Historical Society Bulletin

About the Author

Peter Margaritis minored in History at Ohio State University. A retired chief petty officer, he has an extensive military background in communications and naval intelligence. He now writes and lectures on military history. He has written many technical manuals and guides as a civilian, dozens of reports in the military, and several articles on World War II and the Civil War. He is the co-author (with George Peto) of 22 on Peleliu (Casemate 2017) and has also written several short books on the European theater.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07QM9J255
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Casemate; Illustrated edition (January 4, 2019)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ January 4, 2019
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 6760 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 1079 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 123 ratings

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Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
123 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

john
5.0 out of 5 stars Great
Reviewed in the United States on January 28, 2024
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Good service and better than expected book.
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David Emery
4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting idea, but a bit subjective
Reviewed in the United States on August 22, 2019
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This follows the movements of various key leaders in the Wehrmacht before D-Day, concentrating on Rommel and von Runstedt. Each day, their movements are described, who they met with, what was discussed, etc. The two problems I have with this are (1) a lot of time the author guesses what the person was thinking. Now these are probably well-informed guesses, but it's still subjective to read what Rommel was thinking lying in bed at night... (2) The footnotes are informative for what they cover, e.g. information on division commanders and other 'minor players'. But the actual day-to-day movements are not footnoted, which means you have to trust the author when he talks about a given day's activities for Rommel, etc. In a few cases, where there are disagreements, the author discusses those in a note. But overall it would be hard to rely on this book as authoritative given its lack of documentation. The author clearly respects how Rommel turned around things in Normandy from the laid-back situation before he arrived, and some of his comments on von Runstedt read a little prejudiced. But as a day-to-day description of what Army or Army Group commanders do and worry about, this book is an excellent read.
10 people found this helpful
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TripleD
5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and well-researched
Reviewed in the United States on July 9, 2022
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Author did a lot of research to document the German side of the story. Got a little too detailed when Rommel is inspecting the defenses day after day. The book really showed the confusion during the fog of war during D-Day. Easy to read. Good book.
One person found this helpful
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BOOKWORM
5.0 out of 5 stars MOST INTERESTING
Reviewed in the United States on April 29, 2021
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SOME OF THE DIALOG MAY BE SUPPOSITION IT IS STILL PRETTY ACCURATE, KNOWING THE DISPOSITIONS OF THE CHARACTERS INVOLVED. THE PETTINESS AND JEALOUSIES OF SOME OF THE MAIN CHARACTERS IN THE GERMAN MILITARY MAKES ONE WONDER HOW THEY GOT AS FAR AS THEY DID. WELL WRITTEN AND VERY INTERESTING.
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john
5.0 out of 5 stars Does not paint a very good impression of what von Rundstedt's preparations for the invasion
Reviewed in the United States on May 22, 2019
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I have read over 100 pages so far and enjoy the book. Two points about Rommel are Clear: 1.Glorifies his leadership as he prepares for the June invasion, 2. dances around his involvement in the July plot to kill Hitler.
6 people found this helpful
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J. Stimpert
4.0 out of 5 stars Good book, badly in need of copy editing
Reviewed in the United States on May 20, 2019
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The fact that publishers no longer use copy editors prior to publication is very much on display with this book. Dozens of misspellings, erratic and puzzling punctuation, and words omitted from sentences make reading more difficult than it should be. Even a rudimentary spelling and grammar checking program would have helped immensely. But I still enjoyed this book because it gives an excellent picture of the German side of the invasion. There are dozens of books telling the story from the Allied side, most of them very good, and many of them try to include a little bit of information from the German perspective, but this is the only recent work I'm aware of that concentrates on the German side of the events leading up to 6 June 1944. Adding brief paragraphs to include major Allied activities along the way helps keep the better known events in sync with what the Germans are thinking and doing. If the publisher had just seen fit to pay for a copy editor, I would have easily given this book 5 stars. It's still very much worth reading because of the perspective it gives.
24 people found this helpful
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Pete
5.0 out of 5 stars Detail
Reviewed in the United States on September 23, 2019
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Intersting detail prior to D day in the western front.
Day to day events of the German High Command
2 people found this helpful
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Kornel A. Burnacz
3.0 out of 5 stars An interesting read...
Reviewed in the United States on January 5, 2021
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I liked this book because it was neither a dry recitation nor a dense analysis of the facts. The author humanizes the major characters, some of whom are (for want of a better term) larger-than-life figures.
Having grown up with someone who was on the wrong side of the war and who had been in situations similar to what middle-ranking German officers faced the language seemed appropriate.
That being said, perhaps the author should not have “put words in their mouths.”
In addition I did find one glaring error among several: at one point Hitler is described as looking forward to a meeting with three leaders of Eastern Europe: Horthy of Hungary, Antonescu of Romania and Tito of Czechoslovakia.
Tito was NOT the leader of Czechoslovakia, he was the leader of anti-German communist partisans in Yugoslavia!
There were a number of typos as well, something I would not have expected of a finished product and for which I blame the editors, not the author.
Hence, why I give this otherwise interesting book a three-star rating instead of four stars.
3 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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SIMON MILLS
5.0 out of 5 stars Would recommend to all military readers
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 3, 2024
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A hard book to put down after starting reading it .
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AvidReader
5.0 out of 5 stars a compulsive page-turner...super super read
Reviewed in Canada on February 1, 2021
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One of the best things I've read on the pre-D-Day period. Gives a lot of perspective on what the Germans thought about developments: planning, defensive actions, internal command conflicts, missteps and mistakes, etc. Fantastic.
(Other reviewers here complain about copy-editing, punctuation, etc. Sure, there is some of that, but I'm not sure what the source of these errors are -- quite a bit of this book has been translated from German -- but in any case these problems are minor and don't detract from the overall readability or the building tension as the book gets closer to June 6th)
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Luis Piñol Masgoret
5.0 out of 5 stars Libro muy interesante
Reviewed in Spain on October 30, 2021
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Una visión alternativa del Desembarco de Normandia.
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IDIC
4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book, poor proof reading.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 24, 2019
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I preordered this book some months ago and have not been disappointed now that I have received it and am half way through reading it. It is a day by day journal of Rommel’s efforts to prepare the so called Atlantic Wall for the anticipated Allied invasion of France. He was appointed to this task in December 1943 and this is where the book starts and follows him up until Operation Overlord begins. I have already learnt much from reading this book and it is written in a very user friendly style that will appeal to readers who are not total military history enthusiasts as well as those of us who are. We follow the Field-marshal almost as though we are part of his entourage as he visits the coastal defences and tackles the various problems he comes up against. So, if I enjoyed this book so much why haven’t I given it 5 stars? Well, as a publisher, Casemate are well known for the quality of their books but, if I was the author, I would be bitterly disappointed and angry at this first edition of a work that has taken much hard work to complete and seems not have been proof read. The mistakes in grammar are legion and most are very basic, which is why I don’t think it’s been properly proof read. However, I would still recommend this book to anyone interested in researching Overlord, the battle for Normandy or Rommel. Hopefully the next printing will be proof read properly.
2 people found this helpful
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R. A. Wilkinson
5.0 out of 5 stars A riveting read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 9, 2021
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Excitement builds day by day. A good and long read.Eventually, I felt sorry for Rommel. All that effort in vain.
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