Fighting in Normandy:
German Army from D-Day to Villers Bocage

Review

by John Barnard

Editor-David Isby.
Greenhill Books. ISBN 1-85367-460-5. Price £19.95.

A brilliant book this for any 'Lone Warrior' wargaming the Normandy Campaign. It's full of diary extracts and accounts which graphically illustrate the destruction of units such as the 352nd Infantry Division for example which, in defending from OMAHA to St.Lo, lost around 80% of its total strength! That was in just one week from 7th to 13th June 1944, and it's this week which is recounted in the book. There are literally dozens of potential wargame scenarios here, I found the book every bit as good as Paul Carell's 'Invasion Their Comin!'.

The use of the German heavy Flak batteries in the ground role is well described, as is German opinion of the role of Allied AOP's and the effects of continuous naval bombardment.

In the penultimate chapter, 'Panzers in Normandy,' Kramer of the 1st SS Pz.Korps, Guderian and Geyr von Schweppenburg of Panzer Gruppe West provide a detailed post-war version of the armoured campaign. While von Schweppenburg re-runs his intention to commit 2 Pz, and 2 Pz.Gren. Divisions against the beachheads in the face of two opponents beyond his panzer's reach, and well beyond anything he'd ever encountered as a commander: the heavy guns of the Allied navies offshore, and the supremacy of Allied air power. The only time I've seen this wargamed, the swift counter-stroke and 'let's drive them into the sea' scenario, it only succeeded because it was gamed in fog! Hmm?

An excellent book, and a good follow on to Isby's 'The German Army at D-Day' published about two years ago.

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