Book: "D-Day and the Battle of Normandy" by Jean QUELLINEN
Available in French only
ISBN : 9782815102643
Fourth Cover:
"Another book on the D-Day landings and the Battle of Normandy will think some. It is true that the production in this area is impressive, mingling the stories of the liberation of the most humble common with the most ambitious syntheses.
Are we sure, however, to know everything about this crucial event of the Second World War?
Based on the recent achievements of historical research,D-Day and the Battle of NormandyCalls into question many received ideas and stubborn legends on a subject that one would be wrong to believe exhausted. Do we know, for example, that the "Ultra" decryption system allowed the Allies to read open book in the intentions of the Germans throughout the duration of the battle and to take advantage of it? Do we know that the Americans have never had, contrary to the Gallist assertions, the intention to establish a military government in France, the AMGOT? Do we know that the role of Allied fighter-bombers, presented as formidable "tank kills", is largely overrated? Do we know, pell-mell, that the Allied losses on D-Day were undervalued; that there was no Stalingrad in Normandy; that two paratroopers fell on the church of Saint-Mère-Eghlise... and not just one; that the Kieffer commando did not really have as we see in a famous scene of theLongest day, Film riddled with inconvenient inaccuracies for memory.
Many technical innovations, highlighted for the greatest glory of the Allies, did not play the role that is usually given to them. Sergeant Culin's famous "hedge cutters" were only mediocredly useful for the success of the operationCobra. The PLUTO underwater pipe-line between England and Cherbourg was a total fiasco. The artificial port of Arromanches, an indisputable technological marvel, however, only held a fairly modest place in the supply of the Allies. Yes, it was necessary to propose a new reading, dusted off, of the D-Day landings and the Battle of Normandy."