by Wayne Vansant (Author)
Normandy depicts the planning and execution of Operation Overlord in 96 full-color pages. The initial paratrooper assault is shown, as well as the storming of the five D-Day beaches: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword. But the story does not end there. Once the Allies got ashore, they had to stay ashore. The Germans made every effort to push them back into the sea. This book depicts the such key events in the Allied liberation of Europe as: 1. Construction of the Mulberry Harbors, two giant artificial harbors built in England and floated across the English Channel so that troops, vehicles, and supplies could be offloaded across the invasion beaches. 2. The Capture of Cherbourg, the nearest French port, against a labyrinth of Gennan pillboxes. 3. The American fight through the heavy bocage (hedgerow country) to take the vital town of Saint-Lô. 4. The British-Canadian struggle for the city of Caen against the "Hitler Youth Division," made up of 23,000 seventeen- and eighteen-year-old Nazi fanatics. 5. The breakout of General Patton's Third Army and the desperate US 30th Division's defense of Mortaine. 6. The Falaise Pocket, known as the "Killing Ground, " where the remnants of two German armies were trapped and bombed and shelled into submission. The slaughter was so great that 5,000 Germans were buried in one mass grave. 7. The Liberation of Paris, led by the 2nd Free French Armored Division, which had been fighting for four long years with this goal in mind.
Back Jacket
"What a glorious book, vivid, accurate, utterly bewitching." -Alex Kershaw, bestselling author of "The Bedford Boys, One American Town's Ultimate D-Day Sacrifice""
" The Allied invasion of Europe was the most anticipated event of WWII. In this powerful graphic history, Wayne Vansant tells the intricate story of the planning and execution of Operation Overlord from the invasion of five D-Day beaches (Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword) on June 6, 1944, to the liberation of Paris on August 25, 1944. In between Vansant paints a portrait of the campaign's vicious and unforgiving fighting, including the Allies' capture of Cherbourg, the deadly battles in hedgerow country, the Allied struggle for Caen, the breakout of Patton's Third Army, and the eventual defeat of Axis forces in the Falaise Pocket. It was the Allied success in Normandy that hastened the beginning of the end for the Nazis. About the Author: Writer and artist Wayne Vansant was the primary artist for Marvel's "The 'Nam" for more than five years. Since then he has written and/or illustrated many historically accurate graphic histories including "Antietam: The Fiery Trial" (for the National Park Service) and "The Vietnam War: A Graphic History." He is currently working on "Gettysburg," a graphic history of the Civil War's most famous battle.
Author Biography
Writer and artist Wayne Vansant was the primary artist for Marvel's The 'Nam for more than five years. Since then, he has written and illustrated many historically accurate graphic histories, such as The Hammer and the Anvil; The Vietnam War: A Graphic History; Normandy: A Graphic History of D-Day, The Allied Invasion of Hitler's Fortress Europe (Zenith Press, 2012); Gettysburg: The Graphic History of America's Most Famous Battle and the Turning Point of the Civil War (Zenith Press, 2013); Grant vs. Lee: The Graphic History of the Civil War's Greatest Rivals During the Last Year of the War (Zenith Press, 2013); Bombing Nazi Germany: The Graphic History of the Allied Air Campaign That Defeated Hitler in World War II (Zenith Press, 2013); and The Red Baron: The Graphic History of Richthofen's Flying Circus and the Air War in WWI (Zenith Press, 2014). He is currently working on The Battle of the Bulge: A Graphic History of Allied Victory in the Ardennes, 1944-1945 (Zenith Press, 2014) for the 70th anniversary of the battle in December 2014.