This is a remarkable and fascinating series of interviews with German soldiers who served on the Atlantic Wall in Normandy on the day of the Allied invasion of France in 1944. Most of what we read and see about D-Day or the entire Second World War itself is depicted from the Allied perspective. This short but powerful book gives a fresh look at a battle that seems to many of us quite familiar. The horrors of the battle, the fear and also the compassion present on the German side are presented without varnish in these memories of ordinary soldiers, many of whom thought they were defending a united Europe and couldn't understand why the Allies wanted to kill them. It's a remarkable work. A follow-up volume exists, and I'll be reading it soon. ( )

An interesting short read giving us light into the mindset of German soldiers during the Normandy invasion, recommended read for WWII history enthusiasts. ( )

Very interesting quick read. ( )

This was an interesting read.

Holger Eckhertz was really more of a interviewer, rather than an author, of mostly German soldiers and one pilot, all who fought in Normandy on 6 June 1944 or after. Some of the men interviewed were captured that day while others fought to the end of the war. They spanned a good spectrum, from Landsers in Static Divisions, StuG crewmember, engineers, to an Me 109 pilot.

During the war, Eckhertz worked for Signal and Die Werhmacht and had toured Normandy in April and May 1944, gathering stories for those publications. He apparently had met most or all the men from the book at that time, as they mentioned in the interviews about remembering each other The interviews for the books all took place in 1955 and the author died before he could complete his project, which was to talk to more veterans and publish the interviews. The stories remained unpublished until Eckhertz's son published the first book in 2015, which were stories from one veteran from each of the assault beaches. Book Two (2016) consists mostly of stories from other combat arms and varies in location. Both books are in one volume.

As I mentioned, it was interesting - interesting reading their thoughts insights on the war. Most mentioned often that they were fighting for a "United Europe" with several acknowledging that the idea was a farce. Some held firm to that belief. All seemed to mention the overwhelming material superiority and expressed surprise that there were no horses and that the Allies landed across the beaches with no immediate intent to take a port. There were other insights revealed that surprised me and other that confirmed what I had read in other accounts.

One interviewee was involved in a special weapon I had not heard of, the Taifun (Typhoon). It was a fuel air explosive using kerosene and coal dust and was somewhat fragile in transport and use. Its effective range of effect was estimated to be measured in kilometers and heavily affected by weather conditions. The one time they were going to finally use was the night prior to Cobra, but US artillery destroyed the battery moments before the weapons were to be fired. Apparently the weapons drawbacks prevented further development.

Anyway, the book was good and held my interested well.

No photos or maps. ( )

Five accounts by German soldiers stationed in Normandy.

Most interesting to me was not the fighting but the information problem — at what point did they become aware it was an invasion and not merely a Dieppe-style raid. Also, pretty telling when they saw the massive assembled logistics after the invasion, and were amazed to see zero horses (since the allies were completely mechanized with essentially limitless fuel.)

Pretty much apolitical, with the one obvious thing being that they thought they were right, and fighting at that point of the war to defend Europe/pan-europeanism/etc. At one point when being overrun one of their companions asked “maybe we shouldn’t have started this war”, though.

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