by Peter Tsouras Greenhill, 2000, ISBN 1-85367-411-7, $20, 237 pages With a new D-Day museum in New Orleans and Saving Private Ryan now in re-runs, what better time to partake in an exercise of "what if" concerning the D-Day invasion? Disaster at D-Day picks some plausible, if decisive, points in the Allied invasion operation and speculates on how the Germans could have defeated the Allies in June 1944. For example, what if Hitler released one more German Panzer division into Rommel's care? Tsouras selects that particular point and places the division near Omaha beach where Rommel wanted it. Thus, as the Americans attack, they are met by a panzer division plus the already formidable infantry division emplaced at Omaha. Obviously, speculative works demand some imagination for them to be believeable. The descriptions of the various attacks and counterattacks are credible, and Tsouras' shifting points of view from grun to general flow reasonably well. Whether you believe all the decision points and their conclusions is another story. A big part of Tsouras' postulation hinges on the release of significant German reserves because Normandy is identified as the main invasion spot. Another is the V-1 wonder weapons are turned against ports in Southern England and Normandy instead of London. Disaster at D-Day was written in 1994--this book is a trade paperback re-release. The ending is certainly dramatic, although...I find it somewhat out of place to draw such political issues in a work of military operations, and I find the ending most unpalatable. You see, Tsouras does such a fine job of leading you on, with credible decision points that make sense for 244 pages, only to hit upon a three-page ending that reads like a TV movie of the week script. The last sentence, "my apologies about the damage," proves all too appropriate. You'll notice I studiously avoid detailing the ending. I'm sure there was a literary struggle between including it and not including it. I prefer to remember Disaster at D-Day for its spot-on analysis rather than its conclusion. Back to MWAN #109 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2001 Hal Thinglum This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com