A LANDMARK NEW ACCOUNT OF THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT DAY OF WW2, IN THE WORDS OF THE PEOPLE WHO LIVED IT
'A sprawling history of D-Day from the point of view of participants on both sides.' -Kirkus
'A masterpiece of oral history. Stirring, surprising, grim, joyous, moving and always riveting.' -Evan Thomas
'Absolutely gripping... Graff, who was a Pulitzer finalist last year, has collected thousands of short statements from soldiers, nurses, pilots, children, neighbors, sailors, politicians, volunteers, photographers, reporters and so many more and then woven them together to create a contemporaneous narrative of the Allied invasion on June 6, 1944.' -Ron Charles, The Washington Post Book Club Newsletter
On 6th June 1944, the Allied invasion began. For hours, wave after wave of soldiers, sailors, and airmen crossed the channel and stormed the Normandy coast, fighting to gain a foothold in Nazi-occupied Northwest Europe. It was the largest combined air and seaborne invasion ever, involving over 150,000 Allied troops on the ground, and its eventual success became a critical turning point in the war, spelling the beginning of the end for the Third Reich.
As the events of that day fade from living memory, it's more important than ever to understand what it felt like to be there and to live through it, on both sides. In this definitive work, Garrett M. Graff, the bestselling author of The Only Plane in the Sky: The Oral History of 9/11, compiles over 600 US, Canadian, UK, French and German voices to tell the full story of exactly how that historic day unfolded, in visceral detail - as well as the weeks and months leading up to it. From paratroopers to fighter pilots to nurses, generals, French villagers, German Defenders to Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt, this is the most intimate re-telling of D-Day published to date.
Praise for THE ONLY PLANE IN THE SKY:
"The most moving and chilling oral history you will read." The Times
"Incredibly evocative and compelling." The Washington Post
"A hugely powerful new book." Dan Snow
"Astonishing book about an astonishing, terrifying atrocity, relived in real time by those who were there. I read it in one sitting & was utterly gripped from start to finish." Piers Morgan
