Support Us
Five Books
 
Search
MENUMENU
  • Nonfiction
        • Art
          • Architecture
          • Art History
          • Design & Illustration
          • Fashion & Style
          • Modern and Contemporary Art
          • Photography
        • Business Books
          • How to Invest
          • Leadership
          • Marketing
        • Economics
          • Behavioural Economics
          • Development Economics
          • Economic History
          • Finance
          • Financial Crisis
          • Globalization Books
          • World Economies
        • Environmental Books
          • Climate Change Books
          • Environmental Ethics
        • Food & Cooking
          • The Best Cookbooks
          • Food & History of Food
          • Wine & Drinks
        • Health & Lifestyle
          • Death & Dying
          • Education
          • Family & Relationships
          • Happiness
          • Sex & Sexuality
        • History Books
          • American History
          • Ancient History (up to 500)
          • Modern History (1800-1945)
          • History of Science
          • Historical Figures
          • Military History
        • Language
          • English Grammar & Usage
          • Books for Learning Languages
          • Linguistics
        • Law
        • Literary Nonfiction
          • Best Biographies
          • Essays
          • Memoir
          • Artists' Biographies
          • Travel
          • True Crime
        • Music & Drama
          • Classical Music & Opera
          • Film & Cinema
          • Music
          • Theatre
        • Nature
          • The Prehistoric World
          • The Earth
          • Plants, Trees & Flowers
        • Philosophy Books
          • Ancient Philosophy
          • Ethics & Moral Philosophy
          • Great Philosophers
          • Social & Political Philosophy
        • Politics & Society
          • War
          • Feminism
          • Foreign Policy & International Relations
          • Human Rights
          • Terrorism
        • Psychology
          • Mental Health
          • Neuroscience
          • Psychoanalysis
          • Psychology Research
          • Self Help
        • Religion
          • Best Atheist Books
          • Buddhism
          • Christian
          • Islamic
          • Jewish
          • Religious History Books
        • Science
          • Astronomy
          • Biology
          • Chemistry
          • Geoscience
          • Maths & Statistics
          • Popular Science
          • Physics Books
        • Sports, Games & Hobbies
          • Football (Soccer)
          • Gardening
          • Hobbies
          • Sport & Sporting Culture
        • Technology
          • Artificial Intelligence/AI Books
          • Computing
          • Digital Age
          • History of Technology
          • Internet
  • Fiction & Literature
        • Classic English Literature
        • American Literature
        • World Literature
        • Literary Criticism
        • Literary Figures
        • Classical Studies
        • Contemporary Fiction
          • NEW Fiction
        • Poetry
        • Memoir
        • Comics & Graphic Novels
        • Fairy Tales & Mythology
        • Historical Fiction
        • Horror
        • Humour
        • Crime Novels
        • Science Fiction
        • Short Stories
        • Romance
        • Thrillers (Books)
        • Mystery
        • Fantasy
  • World
        • Africa
          • Egypt
          • Ghana
          • Nigeria
          • Rwanda
          • South Africa
          • Zimbabwe
        • Americas
          • Latin America
            • Argentina
            • Brazil
            • Caribbean
            • Chile
            • Cuba
            • Mexico
          • United States
          • Canada
        • Arctic & Antarctica
        • Asia
          • Afghanistan
          • Bangladesh
          • Myanmar (Formerly Burma)
          • China
          • India
          • Japan
          • Kazakhstan
          • Korea
          • Pakistan
          • Sri Lanka
          • Singapore
          • Vietnam
        • Australia
        • Europe
          • Belgium
          • Britain
          • France
          • Germany
          • Greece
          • Ireland
          • Italy
          • Netherlands
          • Norway
          • Spain
          • Ukraine
        • Middle East
          • Iran
          • Iraq
          • Israel
          • Syria
          • Turkey
          • Yemen
        • Russia & FSU
          • Azerbaijan
          • Georgia
          • Russia
  • Kids
        • Kids Recommend Books for Kids
        • High School Teachers Recommendations
        • Novels & Novelists
        • Ages Baby-2
        • Ages 3-5
        • Ages 6-8
        • Ages 9-12
        • Books for Teens and Young Adults
        • Best Kids Books of 2022
        • Best Books for Teens of 2022
        • Best Audiobooks for Kids
        • Prizewinning Kids' Books
        • Popular Series Books for Kids
        • History
        • Economics
        • Environment
        • Family
        • Science
        • Mental Health
  • Best Books 2022
        • Audiobooks
        • Best Books for Teens of 2022
        • Best Kids' Books of 2022
        • Best Fiction of 2022
          • Historical Fiction
          • Romance
          • Science Fiction
          • Fantasy
          • Mystery
        • Best Nonfiction of 2022
          • History
          • Politics
          • Memoir
  • New Books
        • New Science Books
        • New Climate Books
        • New Psychology Books
        • New Philosophy Books
        • New Math Books
        • New Economics Books
        • New History Books
        • New Physics Books
        • New Memoirs
        • New Biography
        • New Fiction
        • New World Literature
        • New Historical Fiction
  • Audiobooks
    • Actors Read Great Books
    • Best Audiobooks for Kids
    • Books Narrated by Their Authors
    • Best Audiobook Thrillers
    • Best History Audiobooks
  • Book Awards
    • Nobel Literature Prize
    • Booker Prize
    • Baillie Gifford Prize
    • Royal Society (science)
    • Wolfson Prize (history)
    • Walter Scott Prize
    • Arthur C Clarke Prize
    • Pushkin House Prize
    • Audie Awards
  • Experts

D-Day Books

If you’re looking for books to find out more about D-Day, launched  by the Allies on the 6th of June 1944, we've tried to collect some of the best books on the Normandy landings of WW2 below. It remains the largest and most ambitious land-sea-air operation ever undertaken. As Winston Churchill explained it to the House of Commons on that day:

“This vast operation is undoubtedly the most complicated and difficult that has ever taken place. It involves tides, wind, waves, visibility, both from the air and the sea standpoint, and the combined employment of land, air and sea forces in the highest degree of intimacy and in contact with conditions which could not and cannot be fully foreseen.”

If you're new to the subject, probably the best book to start with is D-Day: The Battle for Normandy, by the bestselling military historian Antony Beevor. It takes you from "The Decision" to go in early June through the liberation of Paris on August 25th, almost three months later. Up to 20,000 civilians died in the Battle of Normandy and Beevor brings alive the horrors of the campaign.

A graphic novel can also be a great way into a subject, and 6th June 1944: Overlord, is a good one. ('Overlord' was the codename for the Battle of Normandy).

One more contemporary book about D-Day—that comes highly recommended by historian Simon Ball—is Chester Wilmot's The Struggle for Europe (1952). Simon also recommends  D-Day (1974) by Warren Tute, John Costello & Terry Hughes, for its amazing photos.

One of the reasons D-Day was successful was the Germans weren't expecting the Allies to land in Normandy. There are a number of great books about 'The Double-Cross System' that enabled the Allies to pull off this extraordinary deception.

Lastly, if you'd prefer to watch a docudrama instead of reading a book, we highly recommend the BBC's D-Day: 6.6.1944, directed by Richard Dale.

We also have great Second World War recommendations and more general books on military history.

D-Day: The Battle for Normandy by Antony Beevor
Buy now Listen now

D-Day: The Battle for Normandy

by Antony Beevor

It was a long time in coming: a new front to challenge Hitler from western Europe (to help the Russians fighting in the East) and much hinged on the success of the D-Day landings. D-Day: The Battle for Normandy, by military historian Antony Beevor, starts in Southwick House (near Portsmouth), where Eisenhower made the difficult decision to proceed on June 6th, 1944, in spite of the choppy weather. The book takes you through the landings on the Normandy beaches and also the terrible fighting that took place in the three months afterwards. If you are visiting the Normandy beaches, this is an ideal book to take along.

(You can also read our interview with Antony Beevor, about his favourite books on the Second World War.)

Read expert recommendations

The Longest Day by Cornelius Ryan
Buy now

The Longest Day

by Cornelius Ryan

If you have any interest in World War II, you’ve probably already read journalist Cornelius Ryan’s The Longest Day or at least watched the epic movie based on it (starring John Wayne, Richard Burton etc). Not only was Cornelius Ryan at D-Day himself, but he tells the stories of the men who lived through it, based on more than 1,000 interviews. The book was first published in 1959.

Read expert recommendations

D-Day Warren Tute and John Costello
Buy now

D-Day

Warren Tute and John Costello

D-Day by Warren Tute, a naval officer who took part in the Normandy landings, and historians John Costello & Terry Hughes is a book that was put together for the 30th anniversary of the D-Day landings in 1974. It’s the illustrations that are the book’s biggest selling point: the book opens with a facsimile of a letter from Eisenhower to the troops, you can see newspaper headlines from the time (“INVASION: Allies Land in France, Smash Ahead; Fleet, Planes, Chutists Battling Nazis”), as well as cartoons, maps and fabulous photos.

Read expert recommendations

The Struggle for Europe by Chester Wilmot
Buy now

The Struggle for Europe

by Chester Wilmot

Chester Wilmot was an Australian war correspondent. The Struggle for Europe (1952) is his journalistic and highly readable account of World War II which has also won the admiration of military historians. Michael Howard writes in the introduction that it is “a book which deserves to rank as highly as a journalistic scoop as it does as a work of history.” Although the book starts with Dunkirk and covers the entire period until the victory in Europe, D-Day is the subject of the whole of Part II of the book, and covers it in detail.

Read expert recommendations

The Double-Cross System by J C Masterman
Buy now

The Double-Cross System

by J C Masterman

“It’s one of the great unsung victories of the Second World War. The double agents were used to convey a vast quantity of lies to the Germans. This network played a critical part in the run-up to D-Day by throwing huge amounts of disinformation which was swallowed more or less whole by the Germans.”

Read expert recommendations

Operation Garbo by Juan Pujol with Nigel West
Buy now

Operation Garbo

by Juan Pujol with Nigel West

Spanish double agent Juan Pujol (codename: Garbo) was the one who managed to persuade the Germans that D-Day was actually a diversion and that the main attack would be elsewhere. “And they believed him. They had their troops elsewhere and if that had not been the case there is no way the Allies would have managed to open up the Western Front.”

Read expert recommendations

D-Day Bombers by Steve Darlow
Buy now

D-Day Bombers

by Steve Darlow

Steve Darlow is the grandson of a Bomber Command pilot and military aviation expert. He spoke to Five Books about the best books on the pilots of the Second World War. D-Day Bombers is based on his interviews with more more than a hundred RAF crew and offers their eyewitness accounts of this crucial part of the campaign.

Read expert recommendations

6th June 1944: Overlord by Master Kit & Serge Saint-Michel
Buy now

6th June 1944: Overlord

by Master Kit & Serge Saint-Michel

6th June 1944: Overlord is a fabulous graphic novel about D-Day and the landings on the Normandy beaches. It opens in April 1944 with the run-up and preparation for Operation Overlord and  goes right through to the liberation of Paris on August 25th, 1944. It shows you what was going on on the different beaches (Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, Sword and Pointe du Hoc), and follows different stories. There are maps and nice details, like the German commanders delaying and losing vital hours because they didn’t want to wake up Hitler, who was a notorious late riser.

As the cover advertises (in our edition) it’s ‘the entire history of the D-Day landings in just 82 pages.’

Read expert recommendations

D-Day: My Story by Bryan Perrett
Buy now

D-Day: My Story

by Bryan Perrett

The My Story series is an excellent way for 8-11 year old children to learn about history. In D-Day: My Story, a fictional lieutenant takes part in the D-Day landings and the fighting in Normandy.

Read expert recommendations

About

We ask experts to recommend the five best books in their subject and explain their selection in an interview.

This site has an archive of more than one thousand seven hundred interviews, or eight thousand book recommendations. We publish at least two new interviews per week.

Five Books participates in the Amazon Associate program and earns money from qualifying purchases.

Newsletter Contact us Privacy Policy Terms of Service Mastodon Social

© Five Books 2023

Get our newsletter