Henry Holt and Company, LLC
Publishers since 1866
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York 10010
mackids.com
Henry Holt® is a registered trademark of Henry Holt and Company, LLC.
Copyright © 2014 by Rick Atkinson
All rights reserved.
For a complete list of image credits, please see p. 197.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Atkinson, Rick.
D-Day : adapted from The guns at last light / Rick Atkinson. — First edition.
pages
cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-62779-111-3 (hardcover) • ISBN 978-1-62779-112-0 (e-book)
1. World War, 1939–1945—Campaigns—France—Normandy—Juvenile literature.
I. Atkinson, Rick Guns at last light. II. Title.
D756.5.N6A75 2014
940.54'21421—dc23
2014005162
Henry Holt books may be purchased for business or promotional use.
For information on bulk purchases, please contact the Macmillan
Corporate and Premium Sales Department at (800) 221-7945 x5442
or by e-mail at [email protected].
First Edition—2014
Based on the book The Guns at Last Light by Rick Atkinson,
published by Henry Holt and Company, LLC.
Designed by April Ward
Maps by Gene Thorp
Printed in the United States of America by
R. R. Donnelley & Sons Company, Harrisonburg, Virginia
1
207-57516_01_6P.indd iv
3
5
7
9
10
8
6
4
2
3/10/14 10:31 AM
contents
List of Maps
Assault on Normandy, June 1944 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Final OVERLORD Plan, June 6, 1944 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Map Legend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Allied Countries and Chain of Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii
Axis Countries and Chain of Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
World War II Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xii
Key Players . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvi
A Note to Readers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix
The Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xx
The Invasion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Epilogue: The Days That Followed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
The United States Declaration of War on Germany . . . . . . . . 172
The Five Greatest Tanks of the War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
The Largest Battleships of the War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
The Most Effective Bombers of the War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
207-57516_01_6P.indd v
3/10/14 10:31 AM
Weapons Carried by U.S., U.K., Canadian,
and German Ground Troops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Carrier Pigeons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Operation Fortitude: The Inflatable Army . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Caring for the Wounded . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Clothing and Equipment Issued to a New GI in 1943 . . . . . . . . . 182
Monthly Pay for an American GI in 1940 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
What They Carried—U.S. Airborne Divisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
What They Carried—U.S. Ground Assault Troops . . . . . . . . . . . 184
K Rations: Food on the Go for American Troops . . . . . . . . . 185
Numbers Tell Part of the Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
operation overlord timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Places to Visit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
For More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
image credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
207-57516_01_6P.indd vi
3/10/14 10:31 AM
a note to readers
My father was a soldier,
which made me an “Army brat.” He
enlisted in the army when he was eighteen years old, in 1943, about
halfway through World War II. He became a lieutenant and arrived
in Europe just after the war there ended. A few years later, my father
came home to America, went to college, got married, and went back
into the army, this time to make it a career. Once again he was sent
to war-torn Europe. I was born in Germany, but we lived for several
years in Austria, which was still occupied by American troops.
I guess it’s no wonder that I have always been fascinated by
World War II. It was the worst catastrophe in human history—a
time of great heroes, of bravery and sacrifice, but also a time of
great villains, of cowardice and horrible crimes. Seventy years after
it was fought, the war continues to influence our lives today. Whether
or not your great-grandfather or great-grandmother served in the
military or worked in a war production factory, chances are it was
the most exciting, terrifying, and memorable period of their lives.
World War II is also the greatest story of the twentieth century,
and my hope is that you will get to know this story because it tells
us a lot about who we are as a nation and what events shaped the
world you know today.
Washington, D.C.
207-57516_01_6P.indd xix
3/10/14 10:33 AM
r
l Oma
enera
G
t
r
n
e
a
and
uten
): Lie
Comm
t
l
f
e
a
l
v
ant
top
, Na
uten
from
msay
f; Lie
e
a
e
s
i
R
i
h
nder,
w
C
m
rtra
r in
clock
mma
e
(
e
o
B
d
y
C
r
n
a
,
i
y
a
m
D-D
r;
mer
iral S
ande
ir Com
ehind
Adm
ontgo
am b
rd M
Comm
ory, A
rmy;
l
e
l
a
e
t
A
a
n
t
r
m
d
s
M
e
e
an
.
. Fir
ir B
ighupr
comm
, 1944
r, U.S
rd Le
eral S
wer, S
ary 1
ande
raffo
; Gen
enho
Allied
u
f
T
s
m
f
r
i
r
b
a
i
E
m
t
e
S
.
o
S
r. F
tD
of
hal
ley, C
ande
wigh
Mars
Chief
Brad
eral D
Comm
Chief
HAEF
n
e
r
S
e
i
,
m
G
A
h
e
;
t
;
ief
upr
ces)
Smi
in Ch
d for
uty S
edell
d lan
r, Dep
lter B
e
e
i
a
l
l
d
W
d
A
l
Te
ra
(all
Gene
rthur
roup
l Sir A
rmy G
a
h
A
s
t
r
s
a
21
hief M
Air C
An A
ir Sc
out,
Spitf
a sub
ire fi
grou
ghter
p of
recog
p
l
the B
ane f
nitio
oy Sc
or a
n as
g
outs,
roup
they
draw
sit on
of ot
sap
her A
the la
ictur
ir Sc
wn o
e of a
outs
f the
to lea
evac
rn ai
uate
rcraf
d St.
t
Paul
’s Sch
ool.
207-57516_01_6P.indd xxii
3/10/14 10:33 AM
The
Gathering
May 5, 1944
In th
this room,
the greatest Anglo-American
milita
military leaders of World War II gathered to rehearse
the deathblow intended to destroy Adolf Hitler’s
Third Reich. It was the 1,720th day of the war. Admirals, generals, field marshals, logisticians, and staff
by the score climbed from their limousines and
marched into a Gothic building of St. Paul’s School.
American military policemen—known as Snowdrops
for their white helmets, white pistol belts, white leggings, and white gloves—looked closely at the 146
engraved invitations and security passes distributed a month earlier. Then six uniformed ushers
escorted the guests, later described as “big men with
the air of fame about them,” into the Model Room, a
cold auditorium with black columns and hard, narrow benches reputedly designed to keep young
THE GATHERING
207-57516_01_6P.indd 1
1
3/10/14 10:33 AM
schoolboys awake. The students of St. Paul’s School had long
been evacuated to rural England—German bombs had shattered seven hundred windows across the school’s campus.
Top-secret charts and maps now lined the Model Room.
Since January, the school had served as headquarters for the
British 21st Army Group, and here the detailed planning for
Operation
OVERLORD,
the Allied invasion of France, had gelled.
As the senior officers found their benches in rows B through J,
some spread blankets across their laps or cinched their overcoats against the chill. Row A, fourteen armchairs arranged
elbow to elbow, was reserved for the highest of the mighty, and
now these men began to take their seats. The prime minister of
England, Winston Churchill, dressed in a black coat and
Air Chief Marshal Sir Sholto Douglass (left)
standing with his senior air staff officer in the
operations room on the morning of the invasion.
2
THE PLAN
207-57516_01_6P.indd 2
3/10/14 10:33 AM
holding his usual Havana cigar,
entered with U.S. General Dwight D.
Eisenhower, whose title, Supreme
Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, signaled his leadership over all of the Allied forces in
Europe. Neither cheers nor applause
greeted them, but the assembly
stood as one when King George VI
strolled down the aisle to sit on
His Imperial Majesty
King George VI
Eisenhower’s right. Churchill bowed
to his monarch, then resumed puffing his cigar.
As they waited to begin at the stroke of ten A.M., these big
men with their air of importance had reason to rejoice in their
joint victories and to hope for greater victories still to come in
this war.
Sir Winston Churchill, prime minister of the United Kingdom, inspecting
a crater left by a German bomb in London, September 10, 1940.
207-57516_01_6P.indd 3
3/10/14 10:33 AM
Since September 1939, war had raged across Europe, eventually spreading to North Africa and as far east as Moscow,
capital of the Soviet Union. Germany, a country humiliated
after World War I, had seen the rise of Adolf Hitler, a dictator
who had dreams of conquering the continent. Beginning with
Poland, his armies had crushed one nation after another,
destroying cities and killing or enslaving millions of people.
His collaborators in the Axis alliance, particularly Japan
and Italy, pushed their own campaigns of aggression in Asia
and Africa.
Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, and
Japan’s attack in December of that year on the U.S. naval base
at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, led to a grand alliance determined
to stop the Axis. The United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet
Union were the major Allied powers, but they were supported
Adolf Hitler, führer of the Nazi Party (right),
and Benito Mussolini, prime minister of Italy,
in Munich, Germany, June 1940.
4
THE PLAN
207-57516_01_6P.indd 4
3/10/14 10:33 AM
The U.S.S. Shaw explodes during the Japanese
attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941.
by dozens of other countries. At an enormous cost in blood,
Soviet armies pushed the German invaders back through eastern Europe, mile by mile. German casualties there exceeded
three million, and in 1944 nearly two-thirds of Hitler’s combat
power remained tied up in the east.
The United States and Britain, meanwhile, had defeated
German and Italian forces in North Africa. They then moved
north across the Mediterranean Sea to conquer much of Italy,
which surrendered and abandoned the Axis. The Third Reich,
as Hitler called his empire, was ever more vulnerable to air
attack. Allied planes flying from Britain, Italy, and Africa
dropped thousands of tons of bombs on Germany and on
German forces along various battle fronts. City by city, factory
THE GATHERING
207-57516_01_6P.indd 5
5
3/10/14 10:33 AM
A U.S. propaganda poster encourages increased
production prior to D-Day, 1943–1944.
by factory, Germany was a country increasingly in flames.
Although they paid a staggering cost in airplanes and flight
crews, the U.S. Army Air Forces, Britain’s Royal Air Force, and
the Canadian Air Force had won mastery of the European skies,
even as Allied navies controlled the seas.
By the late spring of 1944, the Allies were ready to attempt
something that had long seemed impossible: to invade what
the Germans called “Fortress Europe” and begin the final campaign that would free citizens who had been enslaved since
Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. The hour of
liberation had nearly arrived.
6
THE PLAN
207-57516_01_6P.indd 6
3/10/14 10:33 AM