Sand and Steel
The D-Day Invasion and the Liberation of France
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Narrated by:
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Derek Perkins
About this listen
Peter Caddick-Adams' account of the Allied invasion of France in June 1944 matches the monumental achievement of his book on the Battle of the Bulge, Snow and Steel, which Richard Overy has called the "standard history of this climactic confrontation in the West". Sand and Steel gives us D-Day, arguably the greatest and most consequential military operation of modern times, beginning with the years of painstaking and costly preparation, through to the pitched battles fought along France's northern coast, from Omaha Beach to the Falaise and the push east to Strasbourg.
The Allied invasion of Europe involved mind-boggling logistics, including orchestrating the largest flotilla of ships ever assembled. Its strategic and psychological demands stretched the Allies to their limits, testing the strengths of the bonds of Anglo-American leadership. Drawing on firsthand battlefield research, personal testimony and interviews, and a commanding grasp of all the archives and literature, Caddick-Adams' gripping book, published on the 75th anniversary of the events, does Operations Overlord and Neptune full justice.
©2019 Peter Caddick-Adams (P)2021 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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Extra. Ordinary.
- By Anonymous User on 12-15-21
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Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942
- By: Ian W. Toll
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 22 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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On the first Sunday in December 1941, an armada of Japanese warplanes appeared suddenly over Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and devastated the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Six months later, in a sea fight north of the tiny atoll of Midway, four Japanese aircraft carriers were sent into the abyss. Pacific Crucible tells the epic tale of these first searing months of the Pacific war, when the U.S. Navy shook off the worst defeat in American military history and seized the strategic initiative.
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Astonishingly good.
- By Mike From Mesa on 09-01-12
By: Ian W. Toll
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Given Up for Dead
- America's Heroic Stand at Wake Island
- By: Bill Sloan
- Narrated by: David Cochran Heath
- Length: 13 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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On December 8, 1941, just five hours after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Japanese planes attacked a remote US outpost in the westernmost reaches of the Pacific. It was the beginning of an incredible 16-day fight for Wake Island, a tiny but strategically valuable dot in the ocean. Unprepared for the stunning assault, the small battalion was dangerously outnumbered and outgunned. But they compensated with a surplus of bravery and perseverance, waging an extraordinary battle against all odds.
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For want of a nail...
- By Kindle Customer on 07-21-21
By: Bill Sloan
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The First Wave
- The D-Day Warriors Who Led the Way to Victory in World War II
- By: Alex Kershaw
- Narrated by: Paul Michael
- Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Beginning in the predawn darkness of June 6, 1944, The First Wave follows the remarkable men who carried out D-Day’s most perilous missions. The charismatic, unforgettable cast includes the first American paratrooper to touch down on Normandy soil; the glider pilot who braved antiaircraft fire to crash-land mere yards from the vital Pegasus Bridge; the brothers who led their troops onto Juno Beach under withering fire; as well as a French commando, returning to his native land, who fought to destroy German strongholds on Sword Beach and beyond.
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Thoughtful and Sobering
- By Anonymous User on 10-07-19
By: Alex Kershaw
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By Tank into Normandy
- By: Stuart Hills, Lord Deedes - foreword
- Narrated by: Roger Clark
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Stuart Hills embarked his Sherman DD tank on to an LCT at 6:45 a.m., Sunday, June 4th, 1944. He was 20 years old, un-blooded, fresh from a public-school background, and officer cadet training. He was going to war. Two days later, his tank sunk; he and his crew landed from a rubber dinghy with just the clothes they stood in. After that, the struggles through the Normandy bocage in a replacement tank, engaging the enemy in a constant round of close encounters, led to a swift mastering of the art of tank warfare and remarkable survival in the midst of carnage and destruction.
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First “The Big Show” now this?!
- By S. H. Moore on 05-19-21
By: Stuart Hills, and others
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The Last Hill
- The Epic Story of a Ranger Battalion and the Battle That Defined WWII
- By: Bob Drury, Tom Clavin
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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They were known as “Rudder’s Rangers,” the most elite and experienced attack unit the Army had. In December 1944, they would be the spearhead into Germany, taking the war into Hitler’s homeland at last. Their colonel was given this objective: Take Hill 400. After two days, when they were finally relieved, only 16 Rangers remained to stagger down from the top of Hill 400. The Last Hill is filled with unforgettable action and characters—a gripping, finely detailed saga of what the survivors of the battalion would call “our longest day.”
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more a history of the rangers in ww2
- By M. Johannes on 10-12-23
By: Bob Drury, and others
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D-Day
- June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of WW II
- By: Stephen E. Ambrose
- Narrated by: Jesse Boggs
- Length: 25 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Stephen E. Ambrose draws from hundreds of interviews with US Army veterans and the brave Allied soldiers who fought alongside them to create this exceptional account of the day that shaped the twentieth century. D-Day is above all the epic story of men at the most demanding moment of their existence, when the horrors, complexities and triumphs of life are laid bare and courage and heroism come to the fore.
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What an epic story what great men
- By Michael on 02-12-14
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Utmost Savagery
- The Three Days of Tarawa
- By: Colonel Joseph H. Alexander United States Marine Corps (Ret.)
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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On November 20, 1943, in the first trial by fire of America’s fledgling amphibious assault doctrine, 5,000 men stormed the beaches of Tarawa, a seemingly invincible Japanese island fortress barely the size of the 300-acre Pentagon parking lots. Before the first day ended, one-third of the marines who had crossed Tarawa’s deadly reef under murderous fire were killed, wounded, or missing. In three days of fighting, four Americans would win the Medal of Honor and six thousand combatants would die.
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The Definitive Battle History of Tarawa
- By Iain on 02-23-11
By: Colonel Joseph H. Alexander United States Marine Corps (Ret.)
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Eagle Against the Sun
- The American War With Japan
- By: Ronald H. Spector
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 23 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Spector reassesses US and Japanese strategy and offers some provocative interpretations. He shows that the dual advance across the Pacific by MacArthur and Nimitz was less a product of strategic calculation and more a pragmatic solution to bureaucratic, doctrinal, and public relations problems facing the Army and Navy. He also argues that Japan made its fatal error not in the Midway campaign but in abandoning its offensive strategy after that defeat and allowing itself to be drawn into a war of attrition.
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OK as an overview, but too little detail
- By Mike From Mesa on 03-21-22
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War Stories II
- Heroism in the Pacific
- By: Oliver North, Joe Musser
- Narrated by: Joel Leffert
- Length: 16 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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New York Times best-selling author Oliver North, popular host of FOX News Channel's top-rated War Stories program, provided an insightful look at Operation Iraqi Freedom in the first hard-hitting book based on his show. Now in this second book, North shares the accomplishments of the heroic men who fought in the Pacific theater of World War II.
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Another winner
- By Kindle Customer on 04-20-05
By: Oliver North, and others
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Four Hours of Fury
- The Untold Story of World War II's Largest Airborne Operation and the Final Push into Nazi Germany
- By: James M. Fenelon
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 14 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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On the morning of March 24, 1945, more than 2,000 Allied aircraft droned through a cloudless sky toward Germany. Escorted by swarms of darting fighters, the armada of transport planes carried 17,000 troops to be dropped, via parachute and glider, on the far banks of the Rhine River. Four hours later, after what was the war’s largest airdrop, all major objectives had been seized....
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personal and powerful.
- By TXcustomer on 07-09-19
By: James M. Fenelon
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The Force
- The Legendary Special Ops Unit and WWII's Mission Impossible
- By: Saul David
- Narrated by: Matthew Waterson
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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In December of 1943, as Nazi forces sprawled around the world and the future of civilization hung in the balance, a group of highly trained US and Canadian soldiers from humble backgrounds was asked to do the impossible: capture a crucial Nazi stronghold perched atop stunningly steep cliffs. The men were a rough-and-ready group, assembled from towns nested in North America's most unforgiving terrain, where many of them had struggled through the Great Depression relying on canny survival skills and the fearlessness of youth.
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well Done
- By Barbara on 11-18-19
By: Saul David
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fascinating and thorough, painful narration
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Fire and Steel
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Here is Peter Caddick-Adams's third volume in his trilogy about the final year of the Western front in World War Two. Fire & Steel covers the war's final 100 days—beginning in late January 1945 and continuing until May 8, 1945, when the German high command surrendered unconditionally to all Allied forces. Caddick-Adams's previous two volumes in the acclaimed series—Sand & Steel, which covers the invasion of Normandy in June 1944, and Snow & Steel, the definitive study of the Battle of the Bulge—have set the stage for this concluding volume.
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- France 1940
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In 1940, the German army fought and won an extraordinary battle with France in six weeks of lightning warfare. With the subtlety and compulsion of a novel, Horne's narrative shifts from minor battlefield incidents to high military and political decisions, stepping far beyond the confines of military history to form a major contribution to our understanding of the crises of the Franco-German rivalry.
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You're going to need a French dictionary and a map
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The Price of Glory
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The battle of Verdun lasted ten months. It was a battle in which at least 700,000 men fell, along a front of fifteen miles. Its aim was less to defeat the enemy than bleed him to death and a battleground whose once fertile terrain is even now a haunted wilderness. Alistair Horne's classic work, continuously in print for over fifty years, is a profoundly moving, sympathetic study of the battle and the men who fought there. It shows that Verdun is a key to understanding the First World War.
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Epic Account, Masterful in Its Scope, Power and Resonance
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The Dead and Those About to Die
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A white-knuckle account of the First Infantry Division’s harrowing D-Day assault on the eastern sector of Omaha Beach - acclaimed historian John C. McManus has written a gripping history that will stand as the last word on this titanic battle. Nicknamed the Big Red One, First Division had fought from North Africa to Sicily, earning a reputation as stalwart warriors on the front lines and rabble-rousers in the rear. Yet on D-Day, these jaded combat veterans melded with fresh-faced replacements to accomplish one of the most challenging and deadly missions ever.
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Detailed Account of D-Day
- By Pamela Dale Foster on 07-04-14
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Normandy '44
- D-Day and the Epic 77-Day Battle for France
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D-Day, June 6, 1944, and the 76 days of bitter fighting in Normandy that followed the Allied landing, have become the defining episode of World War II in the west - the object of books, films, television series, and documentaries. Yet as familiar as it is, as James Holland makes clear in his definitive history, many parts of the OVERLORD campaign, as it was known, are still shrouded in myth and assumed knowledge.
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Excellent account of Normandy but be weary...
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Snow & Steel
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Between December 16, 1944 and January 15, 1945, American forces found themselves entrenched in the heavily forested Ardennes region of Belgium, France, and Luxembourg defending against an advancing German army amid freezing temperatures, deep snow, and dense fog. Operation Herbstnebel - Autumn Mist - was a massive German counter-offensive that stunned the Allies in its scope and intensity.
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fascinating and thorough, painful narration
- By richard on 01-05-15
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Fire and Steel
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Comprehensive account of Allied Army operations at the end of World War III
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In 1940, the German army fought and won an extraordinary battle with France in six weeks of lightning warfare. With the subtlety and compulsion of a novel, Horne's narrative shifts from minor battlefield incidents to high military and political decisions, stepping far beyond the confines of military history to form a major contribution to our understanding of the crises of the Franco-German rivalry.
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You're going to need a French dictionary and a map
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The Price of Glory
- Verdun 1916
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The battle of Verdun lasted ten months. It was a battle in which at least 700,000 men fell, along a front of fifteen miles. Its aim was less to defeat the enemy than bleed him to death and a battleground whose once fertile terrain is even now a haunted wilderness. Alistair Horne's classic work, continuously in print for over fifty years, is a profoundly moving, sympathetic study of the battle and the men who fought there. It shows that Verdun is a key to understanding the First World War.
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Epic Account, Masterful in Its Scope, Power and Resonance
- By Ted Shealy on 05-01-24
By: Alistair Horne
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The Dead and Those About to Die
- D-Day: The Big Red One at Omaha Beach
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A white-knuckle account of the First Infantry Division’s harrowing D-Day assault on the eastern sector of Omaha Beach - acclaimed historian John C. McManus has written a gripping history that will stand as the last word on this titanic battle. Nicknamed the Big Red One, First Division had fought from North Africa to Sicily, earning a reputation as stalwart warriors on the front lines and rabble-rousers in the rear. Yet on D-Day, these jaded combat veterans melded with fresh-faced replacements to accomplish one of the most challenging and deadly missions ever.
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Excellent account of Normandy but be weary...
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September Hope
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In September Hope, acclaimed historian John C. McManus explores World War II’s most ambitious invasion, an immense, daring offensive to defeat Nazi Germany before the end of 1944. Operation Market-Garden is one of the war’s most famous, but least understood, battles, and McManus tells the story of the American contribution to this crucial phase of the war in Europe.
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Go yanks go !
- By Alan on 03-06-13
By: John C. McManus
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How the War Was Won
- Air-Sea Power and Allied Victory in World War II
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World War II is usually seen as a titanic land battle, decided by mass armies, most importantly those on the Eastern Front. Phillips Payson O'Brien shows us the war in a completely different light. In this compelling new history of the Allied path to victory, he argues that in terms of production, technology, and economic power, the war was far more a contest of air and sea than of land supremacy.
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Excellent history, but repetitive
- By Anna S. on 11-26-23
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Those Who Hold Bastogne
- The True Story of the Soldiers and Civilians Who Fought in the Biggest Battle of the Bulge
- By: Peter Schrijvers
- Narrated by: John Lee
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In this dramatic account of the 1944-45 winter of war in Bastogne, historian Peter Schrijvers offers the first full story of the German assault on the strategically located town. From the December stampede of American and Panzer divisions racing to reach Bastogne first, through the bloody eight-day siege from land and air, and through three more weeks of unrelenting fighting even after the siege was broken, events at Bastogne hastened the long-awaited end of WWII.
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How Did Anyone Survive?
- By Sher from Provo on 09-26-15
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Clash of the Carriers
- The True Story of the Marianas Turkey Shoot of World War II
- By: Barrett Tillman, Stephen Coonts
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The incredible true story of the most spectacular aircraft-carrier battle in history - World War II's Great Marianas Turkey Shoot. Here is the true account of those great and terrible days - by those who were there, in the thick of the Battle of the Philippine Sea. Drawing upon numerous interviews with American and Japanese veterans as well as official sources, Clash of the Carriers is an unforgettable testimonial to the bravery of those who fought and those who died in a battle that will never be forgotten.
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OUTSTANDING BOOK!!
- By Bill on 10-30-18
By: Barrett Tillman, and others
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Landing on the Edge of Eternity
- Twenty-Four Hours at Omaha Beach
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- Narrated by: Roger Clark
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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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Crete 1941
- The Battle and the Resistance
- By: Antony Beevor
- Narrated by: James Langton
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- Unabridged
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Nazi Germany expected its airborne attack on Crete in 1941 to be a textbook victory based on tactical surprise. Little did they know that the British, using Ultra intercepts, had already laid a careful trap. It should have been the first German defeat of the war, but a fatal misunderstanding turned the battle around.
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Engrossing
- By Jean on 02-01-16
By: Antony Beevor
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Winston Churchill
- The Prime Ministers Series
- By: Peter Caddick-Adams
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- Unabridged
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In his short biography of Winston Churchill, author Peter Caddick-Adams writes that the recipe for Winston Churchill's success during his wartime premiership of 1940-45 can be found in the First World War. He argues that Britain's survival under Churchill was precisely because the nation, and its leaders, had undergone a "dress rehearsal in 1914-18; conscription, rationing, convoys, air raids, mass production, women's uniformed services, coalitions and war cabinets. It had all happened before."
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Savage Continent
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- By: Keith Lowe
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The end of the Second World War in Europe is one of the 20th century's most iconic moments. It is fondly remembered as a time when cheering crowds filled the streets, danced, drank and made love until the small hours. These images of victory and celebration are so strong in our minds that the period of anarchy and civil war that followed has been forgotten. Across Europe, landscapes had been ravaged, entire cities razed and more than thirty million people had been killed in the war.
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Better in print?
- By Rodney on 10-10-12
By: Keith Lowe
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Russia at War, 1941–1945
- A History
- By: Alexander Werth, Nicolas Werth - foreword
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
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- Unabridged
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In 1941, Russian-born British journalist Alexander Werth observed the unfolding of the Soviet-German conflict with his own eyes. What followed was the widely acclaimed book, Russia at War, first printed in 1964. At once a history of facts, a collection of interviews, and a document of the human condition, Russia at War is a stunning, modern classic that chronicles the savagery and struggles on Russian soil during the most incredible military conflict in modern history.
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Simply Astonishing
- By Nicholas Robinson on 02-28-22
By: Alexander Werth, and others
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The French and Indian War
- Deciding the Fate of North America
- By: Walter R. Borneman
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 12 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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In the summer of 1754, deep in the wilderness of western Pennsylvania, a very young George Washington suffered his first military defeat, and a centuries-old feud between Great Britain and France was rekindled. The war that followed would be fought across virgin territories, from Nova Scotia to the forks of the Ohio River, and it would ultimately decide the fate of the entire North American continent—not just for Great Britain and France but also for the Spanish and Native American populations.
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Outstanding Survey of French & Indian War
- By Dennis Jameson on 02-13-24
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Invading Hitler's Europe
- From Salerno to the Capture of Göring: The Memoir of a US Intelligence Officer
- By: Roswell K. Doughty, Reiner Decher - introduction
- Narrated by: Christopher Douyard
- Length: 13 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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On the day that Roswell K. Doughty graduated from Boston University, he also received a commission as a second lieutenant in the army of the United States of America. It was not until 1942 that he was called to active duty—to face some of the toughest fighting of the Second World War. He subsequently saw action in North Africa, then at the disastrous Salerno landings in Italy - where the Allied divisions involved suffered 4,000 casualties—about which the author reveals that suspected intelligence breaches led to the Allies' plans becoming known to the Germans.
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excellent
- By Rosendo on 11-01-22
By: Roswell K. Doughty, and others
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Fire and Fortitude
- The US Army in the Pacific War, 1941-1943
- By: John C. McManus
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 24 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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John C. McManus, one of our most highly acclaimed historians of World War II, takes listeners from Pearl Harbor - a rude awakening for a military woefully unprepared for war - to Makin, a sliver of coral reef where the Army was tested against the increasingly desperate Japanese. In between were nearly two years of punishing combat as the Army transformed, at times unsteadily, from an undertrained garrison force into an unstoppable juggernaut, and America evolved from an inward-looking nation into a global superpower.
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Excellent Work In Spite of A Woke Author
- By J.Brock on 07-09-20
By: John C. McManus
What listeners say about Sand and Steel
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Julie Rae Loving
- 12-25-22
Well Researched and thought out
Of all the many WW2 history's I have now read, I have little doubt that more time and effort went into researching this volume. Well Done! Worth the 37 hours.
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- tug
- 06-06-23
Great book
I loved the detail. I will undoubtedly listen again with a book of relevant maps at hand.
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- Mark Haviland
- 03-11-23
A wonderful history!
The author covers what I expected to be familiar territory in a refreshing, thoughtful and incredibly detailed manner. The narrative and the narration are really first class and, no matter how many times you’ve read about D-Day, this is a must read. You’ll quickly notice this is not only a smashing history, it’s a tribute to all the participants.
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- Jenna
- 06-19-24
Monumental Achievement
Incredible! Great oration for a stunning account of D-Day. Tons of great information colored by touching anecdotes and expert analysis.
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- J.Brock
- 03-24-23
Not for The Uninformed
Peter Caddick-Adams has written one of the most extensive histories on D-Day with “Sand and Steel.” It’s quite an undertaking for the studied listener. Most readers have undertaken other D-Day books since it’s a noted military history buff topic, but this is another step up on the ladder of extensive study. Highly recommend for the learner listener. This would be very daunting for someone who hasn’t studied the topic before. Ease into it and be prepared for a lengthy listen!! But it’s exceptionally well done. Derek Perkins narration is perfect. He always makes a long, dense listen a pleasure.
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- Patrick
- 03-31-24
Excellent
The book was a bit long. Really enjoyed how the commonwealth beaches were covered. It gave a much better description of the substantial casualties they suffered. Also insights to German side I had not heard of before. Finally i enjoyed how author compared more recent scholarship to that of previous decades.
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- S. Wood
- 10-27-23
Too many disconnected vignettes
The narrator does a good job but the story was hard to follow because of disconnected vignettes and unnecessary detail. With about ten hours left I switched to D-Day by Stephen Ambrose, which was easier to follow and much more interesting. Ambrose breaks his story up into larger chunks, allowing him to tell the story while Sand and Steel comes off as more of a recitation of facts.
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- William Helms
- 06-29-21
Disappointed
Book presents a lot of detail but attempt to focus on personal experience is full of fodder that makes reading painful. There are much better books on Overload and Neptune history.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Mike From Mesa
- 11-11-21
Details, details, details
The story of the D-Day landings is probably among the most written about events of the 20th century and what Sand and Steel gives us is a ton of details, most of which are interesting but seemed to me to be of secondary importance As with other books on the subject it covers the long period from the initial troop movements to Great Britain up to and including the actual landings themselves and covers some subjects not often covered otherwise.
Each chapter is filled with the experiences of some of the soldiers involved, in some cases so many as to blur the view of what happened, but always interesting. So we hear about what it was like to cross The Atlantic on a troop ship, what training was like in the UK, the strained relationship between US black and white soldiers, life for British civilians during this period and the affect of having relatively highly paid US soldiers stationed in a country barely able to get along due to wartime rationing, the weather, the crossing to France and the landings. Much of this has been covered in other books on the period but the section on the experiences of black soldiers in Great Britain has rarely been mentioned in what I have read before and what is covered in the book is in greater detail than I have ever seen before.
Here we not only read about Eisenhower's chief meteorologist Group Captain Stagg, but also about his subordinates and the German meteorologist as well. Here we not only read about Rommel and the construction of the Atlantic Wall, but also about the mix of different arms from different countries with different ammunition requirements and the efforts of the French population to slow down and sabotage the construction. Here we read about not only the French resistance but also about the successful German attempts to infiltrate the resistance and what they learned. And most of all we read about the landings themselves, in far too much detail to follow without either a thorough knowledge of the beaches themselves or a decent set of maps. The sections on the landings, at more than 12 hours, cover each section of each beach and left me understanding little of the geography involved but with the understanding that none of the beaches was a "cake walk". The audio version of the author's other book on the war, Snow and Steel, includes a download with maps but this one does not and is in great need of one.
The narration is absolutely first class and I never tired of it during the entire 37+ hours of the book, but I think that, as interesting as the book itself is, it would have benefitted from some editing to shorten some sections. I can only give a qualified recommendation and suggest that anyone not completely familiar with the Normandy coast area get a detailed map if they want to follow what is covered in the last 3rd of the book. While I would have given this book 4 stars if it had maps I only feel able to give it 3 stars due to the lack of those maps. The one thing that the book left me with was the feeling that those who took part in freeing France, Belgium and The Netherlands and defeating Germany were giants in their own way and left me forever grateful for their actions.
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5 people found this helpful