Stephen Howarth on Dawn of D-Day: These Men Were There – 6 June 1944 “When this book was first published in 1959, its subject – D-Day, the Allied invasion of Europe on 6 June 1944 – was recent history, still very much alive in the memories of all those thousands who took part and survived, and all those many thousands more whose lives were directly affected by it. As a professional writer of history myself, I know well that recent history can be very challenging: it is almost certain that after publication, when it is too late to change matters, a reader will send a letter saying (more or less politely) that the author has got it wrong, and that the reader knows, because he or she was there. So the subtitle of this edition is important: these men were there. On first publication, Dawn of D-Day was received with acclamation all around the world for precisely the reasons that its author, my father, sets out with typical modesty in his foreword: it is not a military textbook, but an impression, drawn from the direct experiences of about thirty participants, of the greatest tri-service international operation that had ever taken place. A different thirty people might well have provided different impressions, yet had they done so, theirs would be no less valid than this. D-Day was, as the author said, such ‘a vast adventure’ that no single book could possibly encompass it all. But I should say, on behalf of all those who contributed to it, that this book comes close in a very special way: of all the many volumes I have read about the invasion, Dawn of D-Day best conveys the actual experience of that momentous day, and is a work of brilliance. I can write these things without fear of being accused of bias, for two reasons. Firstly, many other people – reviewers and readers – have said them before me. Secondly, after more than twenty years of writing history, I can read the book with a professional eye; and in doing so I remain greatly impressed by the author’s ability. Of course it is a personal delight that he was (and though dead, still is) my dear father, and because of that I probably cannot be entirely dispassionate about the book; but he had a really outstanding ability to listen and relate to people whom he interviewed and then to tell their stories woven in with those of many others. From these authentic sources he was able to create for the reader a living narrative filled with clear, well-drawn, understandable individual characters. And even if we were not there, in reading about them we can relate to them, worry about them, fear for their safety, even laugh with them at some ludicrous event in the midst of a terrifying battle. Dawn of D-Day is, in other words, an intensely human record. Like any sane individual my father found war abhorrent, but in writing this book he had no anti-war message to convey: he was not present at D-Day because he was fighting in a different arena for the same cause. Rather, his interest was in ordinary people undergoing experiences of great stress for differing causes which they believed just and right; and because of those qualities the book is also a work of great value, even now, sixty years after the events it describes. Born in 1953, I have no recollection of this book being researched and written, nor of course any direct knowledge of the action described; but today we may walk in peace along beaches that were the battlefront. Here and there stand memorials, and not far off in Caen is one of the world’s most moving museums, the Memorial – ‘a museum for peace’. Thank goodness that the Allied forces prevailed; we are their indebted beneficiaries. When the wind blows on the beaches the sand stings your legs and you may look out over the sea and imagine it filled with Allied warships. You may also imagine the shock of the ordinary German soldiers, tasked with defending those beaches, when they awoke to such a sight; and in this book you may read what D-Day meant for ordinary people on both sides.” Dawn of D-Day: These Men Were There – 6 June 1944 will be published shortly in paperback as one of Greenhill’s three D-Day anniversary titles. Back to Greenhill Military Book News No. 128 Table of Contents Back to Greenhill Military Book News List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 2004 by Greenhill Books This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com