from the editors of TIME
This book came up in my library catalog search and looked intriguing enough I decided to read it even though I had no intention of assigning it to First Son (who will be studying World War II in Level 4 next year). It follows the events of the D-Day invasion in 24 chapters, one for each hour of the day. Some of the chapters focus on the most important event of the hour, but there are also chapters on the chaplains, the journalists, the French resistance, and others.
The book is full of pictures, including some unsettling ones of soldiers dead or dying. There are side-bars on almost every page providing in-depth information or little biographies. I loved the one on Andrew Higgins, who designed the Higgins boats used in the landing. There's a story of his youth when he built a boat in his basement. When he realized it wouldn't fit through the door, he waited for his mom to leave on an errand and opened up a wall to get it out. At least he fixed it again! It does mention homosexuality in the biography of Alan Turing.
Sadly, the text has some errors in it, typographical-type ones mostly. It's a shame when such things get printed in a magazine rushed to print, but it's really almost unacceptable that they didn't have enough proofreaders for the book text.
I'm not going to assign this book to First Son, but I am going to make it available. Though focused on D-Day, it provides lots of information and graphics on adaptations to warfare during the war, technological challenges, weaponry, vehicles, and tactics in the war as a whole.
