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Fighting the Invasion: The German Army at D-day. By Gunther Blumentritt et al. Edited by David Isby. Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, 2000. ISBN 1-85367-427-3. Maps. Photographs. Notes. Index. Pp. 256. $34.95.
Two widely acclaimed movies, The Longest Day (1959), based on Cornelius Ryan's book of the same name, and Saving Private Ryan (1999), have given millions of people Hollywood's view of the Allied invasion of Festung Europa on D-day, 6 June 1944. The greatest invasion in history has also been the subject of numerous books. While these films and books have provided a glimpse of the German preparations for and reaction to the invasion, they have primarily focused on the Allied point of view. Only a few books, like Invasion! They're Coming! (1963) by Paul Carell, have provided the German view of D-day. David Isby, like Carell, focuses on the D-day invasion from the German perspective-from their preparations for the landings through the first day of the fighting.
Isby selected forty reports written by German officers of various ranks involved in the preparations for the invasion or the direction of the German response, from among the thousands of reports prepared for U.S. Army intelligence after World War II. At the time, these...