‘People of Western Europe. A landing was made this morning on the coast of France . . .’

With these simple — yet memorable — words, General Eisenhower, the Supreme ­Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force, ­announced to the world on June 6, 1944 that the Allies had begun Operation ‘Overlord’ to liberate Europe.

Now, 50 years later, After the Battle ­presents the full story: from its inception, planning and preparation through to its launch on D-Day and the days that followed, as told by the commanders whose responsibility it was.

Many of the hundreds of ‘then and now’ photographs have been taken exactly 50 years later — sometimes to the precise
minute — from when the original events took place, creating a unique two-volume record of the greatest combined military, naval and air operation of all time.

Contents Volume 2:

‘DIE INVASION HAT BEGONNENI’ — Oberst Bodo Zimmermann • OMAHA AND UTAH AREAS Lieutenant General Omar N. Bradley •
THE MEDALS OF HONOR • GOLD AREA — Brigadier Harold Pyman • THE D-DAY ­VICTORIA CROSS • JUNO AREA — ­Lieutenant-Colonel Charles P. Stacey • SWORD AREA — Brigadier David Belchem • GOOSEBERRY AND MULBERRY — Captain Harold Hickling • AIRFIELD
CONSTRUCTION — Air Chief Marshal Sir ­Trafford Leigh-Mallory • AN APPRECIATION —
Generalfeldmarschall Gerd von Rundstedt • POSTSCRIPT — The ­Editor
THE 50th ­ANNIVERSARY COMMEMORATIONS OF D-DAY — Brigadier Tom Longland • ­NORMANDY TODAY — Major Tonie Holt