dEste - Decision in Normandy: The Real Story of Montgomery and the Allied Campaign

June 6, 2004 marks the 60th anniversary of the most complex and daring military operation in the history of modern warfare. The great Allied invasion of Normandy was not only one of the pivotal battles of World War Two, but the culmination of more than three years of conception, often contentious debate, and the most prodigious military planning ever undertaken. Its success was a testament to the cooperation of allies with fundamentally opposing military and political philosophies, as well as the indomitable courage of men called upon to fight and die on the battlefield.

Nevertheless, in the aftermath of the D-Day landings Field Marshal Erwin Rommels army group fought tenaciously for their very survival, and when the Allies failed to advance beyond their narrow bridgehead, concern quickly turned into discord within the Allied high command. As the commander of the U.S. ground forces, Lieutenant General (later General) Omar N. Bradley, later wrote, By July 10, we faced a real danger of a World War I-type stalemate.

There were two important aspects in the planning for Normandy: the D-Day assault and the post-invasion strategy for driving the German army from Normandy and behind the Seine, thus permitting the Allies to build up their ground armies for an invasion of Germany. Although a great many military minds were responsible for the detailed planning and execution of Operation OVERLORD , the conception and execution of the post-D-Day plan of campaign was the brainchild of the Allied ground commander-in-chief, General (later Field Marshal) Sir Bernard Law Montgomery. As Eisenhowers designated ground force commander, it fell to him to originate and carry out the Allied battle strategy. Montgomerys master plan became one of the most debated and least understood stratagems of his military career. It generated nearly endless debate and to this day still arouses fierce reaction in his critics and admirers, a fact repeatedly brought home to the author during the research and interviews for this book.

A great deal has been written about D-Day, and this work does not attempt to duplicate the excellent accounts written since the war. However, despite its stunning success the Normandy campaign left a legacy of unanswered questions and bitter controversy. Post-war memoirs, campaign histories and biographies have fueled these long-standing disputes, which inevitably, have focused on Montgomerys generalship: his failure to capture quickly the strategically important city of Caen, the manner in which the American breakout from the bridgehead came about, and the quarrel over the closing of the misnamed Falaise gap. Acrimonious public exchanges between the principals have under-scored the great depth of feeling that existed.

Significant documentary evidence released by various British and American archives has revealed previously unknown aspects about Montgomerys intentions and strategy in Normandy, and reaction to them in the Allied high command. These sources give a clear and fascinating perspective on how the Normandy campaign was planned and fought, and form the nucleus of Decision in Normandy.

The D-Day landings were not only an historic day militarily one that signaled a critical new phase of the war but for the weary populace of the Allied nations, and elsewhere throughout the world, it meant at long last the struggle was being taken directly to Nazi Germany, and that the liberation of Europe was at hand. Americans, British, Canadians, Free Polish, Free French, Dutch and Belgian soldiers, sailors and airmen made Normandy succeed in an unprecedented international venture.

This anniversary will be another bittersweet time of remembrance on an occasion which re-affirms that the sacrifice of those who fought the battles and campaigns of the most devastating war in history will never go unremembered. On the occasion of his return to Normandy in 1964 to honor the fallen, the Allied wartime commander-in-chief, General Dwight D. Eisenhower said: These men came here British and our Allies, and Americans to storm these beaches for one purpose only, not to gain anything for ourselves, not to fulfill any ambitions that America had for conquest, but just to preserve freedom.

The wounds of war have at last healed. One-time enemies are now allies in a new century where contemporary forms of terror and warfare threaten the very framework of a world weary of war and terrorism. Although Normandy no longer bears the terrible scars of battle, the many American, British, Canadian, German and Polish military cemeteries which dot the landscape offer silent affirmation of what took place in the summer of 1944. The largest is the American cemetery on the bluffs overlooking bloody Omaha beach, which an average of 1.5 million people visit annually.

Sixty years later those who fought in Normandy grow fewer. Later generations will all too soon only know of this event from the pages of history. It is my sincere wish that this account will serve to shed entirely new light on what historian Max Hastings has aptly called the decisive western battle of the Second World War.

This is the story of one of the last great land battles ever fought, and what occurred during the eighty-day campaign which began on 6 June 1944 and ended in the greatest defeat suffered by Hitlers armies in the West.