If Chaos Reigns
The Near-Disaster and Ultimate Triumph of the Allied Airborne Forces on D-Day, June 6, 1944
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Narrated by:
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Michael Prichard
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By:
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Flint Whitlock
About this listen
"Gentlemen, do not be daunted if chaos reigns; it undoubtedly will."
So said Brigadier S. James Hill, commanding officer of the British 3rd Parachute Brigade, in an address to his troops shortly before the launching of Operation Overlord - the D-Day invasion of Normandy. No more prophetic words were ever spoken, for chaos indeed reigned on that day, and many more that followed.
Much has been written about the Allied invasion of France, but award-winning military historian Flint Whitlock has put together a unique package - the first history of the assault that concentrates exclusively on the activities of the American, British, and Canadian airborne forces that descended upon Normandy in the dark, pre-dawn hours of 6 June 1944. Landing into the midst of the unknown, the airborne troops found themselves fighting for their lives on every side in the very jaws of the German defenses, while striving to seize their own key objectives in advance of their seaborne comrades to come.
Whitlock details the formation, recruitment, training, and deployment of the Allies' parachute and glider troops. First-person accounts by the veterans who were there - from paratroopers to glidermen to the pilots who flew them into the battle, as well as the commanders (Eisenhower, Taylor, Ridgway, Gavin, and more) - make for compelling, "you-are-there" listening. If Chaos Reigns is a fitting tribute to the men who rode the wind into battle and managed to pull victory out of confusion, chaos, and almost certain defeat.
Author/military historian Flint Whitlock graduated from the Army's Airborne School at Ft. Benning, GA, in 1965 and spent five years on active duty, including a combat tour in Vietnam. He is the author of nine books, six of which are about World War II, and is currently the editor of WWII Quarterly. He has appeared in documentaries on The History Channel and on the Fox Channel's War Stories with Oliver North, and now lives in Denver, CO.
©2011 Flint Whitlock (P)2013 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Story
As part of the massive Allied invasion of Normandy, three airborne divisions were dropped behind enemy lines to sow confusion in the German rear and prevent panzer reinforcements from reaching the beaches. In the dark early hours of D-Day, this confusion was achieved well enough, as nearly every airborne unit missed its drop zone, creating a kaleidoscope of small-unit combat.
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Eeh, I'm luke warm about it.
- By Matthew on 11-07-14
By: Robert Murphy
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Beyond Valor
- World War II's Ranger and Airborne Veterans Reveal the Heart of Combat
- By: Patrick K. O'Donnell
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 13 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Previous books have promised to describe the combat experience of the World War II GI, but there has never been a book like Patrick O'Donnell's Beyond Valor. Here is the first combat history of the war in Europe in the words of the men themselves, and perhaps the most honest and brutal account of combat possible.
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Can't get enough.
- By C,L, Richey on 01-08-12
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The Ultimate Battle
- Okinawa 1945: The Last Epic Struggle of World War II
- By: Bill Sloan
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 14 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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The Ultimate Battle is the full story of the largest land-sea-air battle ever waged by the United States, a battle whose staggering casualties and take-no-prisoners ferocity led Truman to drop the atomic bomb on Japan. From April through June 1945, more than 250,000 American and Japanese lives were lost, including those of nearly 150,000 civilians who either committed suicide or were caught in the crossfire. This book tells a gripping story of heroism, sacrifice, and death.
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Takes you into the mud and death
- By Ron on 02-02-08
By: Bill Sloan
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Their Backs Against the Sea
- The Battle of Saipan and the Greatest Banzai Attack of World War II
- By: Bill Sloan
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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In the midst of the largest banzai attack of the war, US Army Lt. Col. William O'Brien, grievously wounded and out of ammunition, grabbed a sabre from a fallen Japanese soldier and flailed away at a small army of assailants, screaming to his men, "Don't give them a damn inch"! When his body was recovered the next day, 30 dead enemies were piled around him. The Battle of Saipan lasted 25 hellish days in the summer of 1944, and the stakes couldn't have been higher. If Japan lost possession of the island, all hope for victory would be lost.
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Thank you!
- By Robert on 01-29-19
By: Bill Sloan
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Dog Company
- The Boys of Pointe Du Hoc - the Rangers Who Landed at D-Day and Fought Across Europe
- By: Patrick K. O’Donnell
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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It is said that the right man in the right place at the right time can mean the difference between victory and defeat. This is the dramatic story of 68 soldiers in the US Army's Second Ranger Battalion, Company D - "Dog Company" - who made that difference, time and again. America had many heroes in World War II; however, few can say that, but for them, the course of the war would have been very different. The right men, the right place, the right time - Dog Company.
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On par with the best; Band of Brothers, etc
- By Addicted to Amazon on 04-30-14
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Landing on the Edge of Eternity
- Twenty-Four Hours at Omaha Beach
- By: Robert Kershaw
- Narrated by: Roger Clark
- Length: 14 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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When Company A of the US 116th Regiment landed on Omaha Beach in D-Day's first wave on June 6, 1944, it lost 96 percent of its effective strength. Sixteen teams of US engineers arriving in the second wave were unable to blow the beach obstacles, as first wave survivors were still sheltering behind them. This was the beginning of the historic day that Landing on the Edge of Eternity narrates hour by hour.
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Good introduction to first hours of D-Day.
- By Barry Davis on 10-19-24
By: Robert Kershaw
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D-Day
- The Battle for Normandy
- By: Antony Beevor
- Narrated by: Cameron Stewart
- Length: 19 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Renowned historian Antony Beevor, the man who "single-handedly transformed the reputation of military history" (The Guardian) presents the first major account in more than 20 years of the Normandy invasion and the liberation of Paris. This is the first book to describe not only the experiences of the American, British, Canadian, and German soldiers, but also the terrible suffering of the French caught up in the fighting.
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A commendable book
- By Michael on 01-19-10
By: Antony Beevor
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Abandoned in Hell
- The Fight for Vietnam's Fire Base Kate
- By: William Albracht, Marvin Wolf
- Narrated by: Brian O'Neill
- Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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In October 1969, Captain William Albracht, the youngest Green Beret in Vietnam, took command of a remote hilltop outpost called Fire Base Kate, held by only 27 American soldiers and 150 Montagnard militiamen. He found their defenses woefully unprepared. At dawn the next morning, three North Vietnamese Army regiments - some 6,000 men - crossed the Cambodian border and attacked.
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Amazing story
- By Effie on 04-12-16
By: William Albracht, and others
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Tragedy at Dieppe
- Operation Jubilee, August 19, 1942
- By: Mark Zuehlke
- Narrated by: John Wray
- Length: 13 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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With its trademark "you are there" style, Mark Zuehlke's 10th Canadian Battle Series volume tells the story of the 1942 Dieppe raid. Nicknamed "The Poor Man's Monte Carlo", Dieppe had no strategic importance, but with the Soviet Union thrown on the ropes by German invasion and America having just entered the war, Britain was under intense pressure to launch a major cross-Channel attack against France. Since 1939, Canadian troops had massed in Britain and trained for the inevitable day of the mass invasion of Europe that would finally occur in 1944.
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When To Throw The Book At Someone
- By Nicholas Robinson on 05-12-23
By: Mark Zuehlke
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Blood and Fury
- The World War II Story of Tank Sergeant Lafayette "War Daddy" Pool
- By: Stephen L. Moore
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 7 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Lafayette Pool provided inspiration for Brad Pitt’s character “War Daddy” Collier in the movie Fury, but his true story is less known. Here, acclaimed author Stephen L. Moore writes the first full-length narrative to honor the valiant Texan tanker. A champion Golden Gloves boxer turned U.S. Army legend, Pool was known as the “ace of tankers” for destroying more than five enemy tanks in head-to-head combat.
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Outstanding work!
- By Rodney on 01-13-23
By: Stephen L. Moore
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The Longest Day
- June 6, 1944
- By: Cornelius Ryan
- Narrated by: Clive Chafer
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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> The Longest Day is Cornelius Ryan’s unsurpassed account of D-day, a book that endures as a masterpiece of military history. In this compelling tale of courage and heroism, glory and tragedy, Ryan painstakingly re-creates the fateful hours that preceded and followed the massive invasion of Normandy to retell the story of an epic battle that would turn the tide against world fascism.
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Horrendous narration makes it impossible to listen
- By Mary on 03-18-12
By: Cornelius Ryan
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The Battle of Arnhem
- The Deadliest Airborne Operation of World War II
- By: Antony Beevor
- Narrated by: Sean Barrett
- Length: 16 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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On September 17, 1944, General Kurt Student, the founder of Nazi Germany's parachute forces, heard the groaning roar of airplane engines. He went out onto his balcony above the flat landscape of southern Holland to watch the air armada of Dakotas and gliders, carrying the legendary American 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions and the British 1st Airborne Division. Operation Market Garden, the plan to end the war by capturing the bridges leading to the Lower Rhine and beyond, was a bold concept, but could it have ever worked? The cost of failure was horrendous, above all for the Dutch.
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Fighting a lost war
- By Alec Drumm on 11-03-18
By: Antony Beevor
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The Story of World War II
- By: Donald L. Miller, Henry Steele Commager
- Narrated by: Michael Kramer
- Length: 24 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Drawing on previously unpublished eyewitness accounts, prizewinning historian Donald L. Miller has written what critics are calling one of the most powerful accounts of warfare ever published. Here are the horror and heroism of World War II in the words of the men who fought it, the journalists who covered it, and the civilians who were caught in its fury. Miller gives us an up-close, deeply personal view of a war that was more savagely fought - and whose outcome was in greater doubt - than one might imagine. This is the war that Americans on the home front would have read about had they had access to previously censored testimony.
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INCREDIBLE! WELL-RESEARCHED, COMPLETE & UNBIASED!
- By The Louligan on 07-15-14
By: Donald L. Miller, and others
What listeners say about If Chaos Reigns
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- 07-13-18
Allied Airborne in Normandy
Good story, goes into good detail on formation of airborne and glider units.
The new stuff I learned in this book concerned mainly about the Canadian Airborne units. Before this book I did not know there were Canadian Airborne.
Leigh Mallory’s objections to the US Airborne drop seem a little suspicious as he did not object to the British and Canadian drops. It makes me think Mallory may have had an ulterior motive to get the US Airborne drop cancelled.
Maybe he wanted control of the planes, maybe he wanted to control where the US Airborne divisions were used.
Good thing the US Airborne was dropped where it was and was able to be relieved by US ground troops.
if they had been dropped elsewhere, say over by Caen, would British ground troops had relived them in time?
Having US Airborne under British control for relief and resupply would have risky for the safety of our Airborne troopers.
For instance,
If the 101st or 82nd had been dropped at Arnhem during Market Garden we would have lost completely one of our Airborne units.
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