D DAY Through German Eyes - Book Two - More hidden stories from June 6th 1944

Holger Eckhertz

DTZ History Publications

2015

165 páginas

5h 30m

ISBN-10: B012HJK542

The first book of ‘D DAY – Through German Eyes’ fascinated readers around the world with its insight into the German experience of June 6th 1944. Now, Book Two contains a completely different set of astonishing German testimonies from the same archive.

These newly translated eyewitness statements by German veterans show the defenders to be determined but psychologically insecure, often deluded in their thinking and all too human in their shock at the onslaught which they faced.

These unique interviews with German soldiers are a historical treasure trove of new insights, heart-stopping combat stories and glimpses of wartime psychology which will absorb anyone with an interest in WW2.

“I am astonished by the immediacy of these new translations from the archive, and I believe that readers will find these accounts, if anything, even more compelling than the first book.
These statements reveal the ambiguous relationships which the German soldiers had with French civilians, especially women, and the way these relationships were destroyed on D Day itself. There are accounts from a Luftwaffe pilot who was one of the first to witness the Allied armada from the air, and stories from foot soldiers, military police and panzer crews who fought desperately to hold back the beach landings and airborne assaults.
The disturbing motivations of the German troops – political, personal and even religious – are presented with an honesty which sheds a radical new light on why the Germans fought so bitterly, so viciously, to keep control of what they perceived to be 'their' precious France.”

– Holger Eckhertz, archive holder.

Resenhas (1)

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Assim como no primeiro livro é possível notar as semelhanças entre as entrevistas e suspeitar de sua veracidade. De qualquer forma, a última entrevista tira qualquer dúvida do leitor a esse respeito, uma vez que fala de uma arma (“Typhoon B”, não confundir com os caças da RAF ou os foguetes alemães que também se chamavam Typhoon) que a internet e os livros se quer mencionam, além de não fazer nenhum sentido lógico uma arma que recria os parâmetros de explosões de minas (de mineração) em ambientes abertos, cuja explosão “destruiria tanques num raio de 1 km, e os danificaria num raio de 4km” – o que seria um efeito de bomba atômica atingido através de queima de gases e partículas suspensas.

Nesse volume também são abordados assuntos interessantes, como o uso de drogas pelos soldados, o destino dos russos que atuaram na defesa da Muralha do Atlântico ao lado dos alemães, o uso dos StuG III entre outros. Sendo tratada como uma discussão de acontecimentos e armamento do Dia-D, sem se preocupar com rigor documental, é uma leitura válida.