***Author lives in Australia*** What is the single subject of the Second World War that is of most interest to the widest constituency of readers ? armchair generals, modellers, those who simply like the drama of war? The armour of the Normandy campaign. Beginning with the D-day landings, this is a brutally frank appraisal of the planned use and actual results of the deployment of armour by both German and Allied commanders in the major tank battles of the Normandy campaign including operations Epsom, Goodwood, Cobra and Totalize. The Armoured Campaign in Normandy is a critique of Montgomery's plans to seize territory and break out and describes how they failed in the face of German resistance. It details the poor planning and mistakes of British senior commanders and how the German Army's convoluted chain of command contributed to their own defeat; these were decisions taken which cost the lives of the tank crews of both sides ordered to carry them out. Official reports, war diaries, after action reports, letters, regimental histories, memoirs of generals and recollections of tank men are used to tell the inside story of the campaign from an armour point of view to give a different but detailed perspective of the Normandy campaign from the men who fought in it. AUTHOR Stephen Napier has studied WWII for more than 20 years. This work has been five years in the making. He is an Englishman with two degrees (BSc and MBA) now living in Australia. SELLING POINTS: ? A critical narrative using original documents of the Allies' victorious armoured campaign in Normandy despite defective inferior tanks and poor leadership. ? New evidence about tanks on D-day and tank losses in the campaign. ? Allied and German perspective from tank crews to generals. ? From period documents and reports, memoirs and regimental histories and original research in archives at Kew, Washington and Ottawa. 25 photos and 25 maps and diagrams
