The Armored Campaign in Normandy

A critical narrative using original documents of the Allies' victorious armored campaign in Normandy despite defective inferior tanks and poor leadership. Beginning with the D-day landings, this is a frank appraisal of the planned use and actual results of the deployment of armor by both German and Allied commanders in the major tank battles of the campaign including Operations Epsom, Goodwood, Cobra and Totalize. Using new evidence about Tanks on D-Day and tank losses in the campating, this book is a critique of how Montgomery's plans to seize territory and break out failed in the face of German resistance. It details the poor planning by British generals who made many mistakes and how the German convoluted chain of command contributed to their own defeat. Official reports, war diaries, After Action reports, letters, regimental histories, memoirs of generals and troopers, and Allied and German perspectives from tank crews are used to tell the inside story of the campaign from an armor point of view to give a different but detailed perspective. For the first time the book gives real numbers of tanks lost in the battle of the campaign from research at archives around the world.