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The D-Day Encyclopedia. Ed. by David G. Chandler and James Lawton Collins Jr. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994. lii, 665 pp. $85.00, ISBN 0-13-203621-5.)
Although published in time for the celebrations of the fiftieth anniversary of the D day landings, this book deserves evaluation of its longer-term value now that those celebrations are over. It turns out to pass the durability test very well, although in different ways than its original ostensible purpose might suggest.
As a reference work its value is substantial. At its core is a collection of more than four hundred signed articles written by 168 different authors, many of them recognized scholarly authorities on various aspects of World War II and some participants in the Normandy landings (and the father of coeditor James Lawton Collins Jr. commanded the United States VII Corps at Normandy). Exceptionally well edited, the text has few typographic errors and fewer factual mistakes: those this reviewer detected were of minor magnitude: for example, the German minesweeeper M402 being lost in an Allied air raid on Boulogne, not Le Havre, on June 15, 1944.
Less satisfactory is the quality of some of the book's more than four hundred photographs. The photographs of the individuals described in the roughly 175 biographies of major military and political leaders are usually suitable for their purpose. But some other photographs, particularly those provided to illustrate weapons and other military hardware, fail to accomplish their objective, for many of them are too dark for the reader to identify significant aspects of the equipment illustrated. The three...