Overlord from Osprey

I've had a couple of days off work to coincide with the last few days of the kids summer holidays. Yesterday was our final opportunity to get the remaining items the children needed for their return to school so we went shopping in Lakeside Thurrock. Normally any trip here is undertaken reluctantly as I usually find the whole experience to be monotonous and generally soul destroying. Model Zone is usually the only shop I enjoy going into with any prospect of exiting with a bag of Loot ('loot' means "Goodies", not "stuff I grabbed while rioting"). On his occasion I restocked my supplies of Clump Foliage and static grass and bought a new pair of clippers to replace an old and blunt set. However this trip I also picked up one other item that made the whole shopping trip worthwhile.

My star purchase of the day was an excellent book from Osprey Publishing on the D-Day operation. Overlord: The D-Day Landings by Ken Ford and Steven J. Zaloga. It seems to be an amalgamation of several earlier osprey books (from the Campaign Series - volumes 1, 100, 104, 105 and 112) into a single volume, and all for just £12.99. I think that constitutes a bargain in anyone's language. This was first published as a hardcover book in 2009 but a new paperback version was updated and released in April this year. Like the original Campaign series it looks at the background to the invasion, the major players in the campaign, the opposing armies, the equipment used and how well both performed in battle. There is also the usual excellent post battle analysis and review.

This volume is divided into four sections: Omaha Beach; Utah Beach and the US Airborne Landings; Sword Beach and the British Airborne Landings; and Gold and Juno Beaches. As with all Osprey works this book includes an excellent collection of period photographs, unit tables, maps, charts and detailed artwork. I bought this in Waterstones and at first I was considering some of the individual Osprey titles when I came across this book.

Needless to say I consider this an absolute bargain and on first inspection it looks very comprehensive. Most of the history books I have read tend to work in chronological order and move from one part of the landings to another. While this is great for getting an overall feeling of the whole action it does make understanding the individual battles for each beach harder to analyse. I'm really looking forward to reading it and getting a beach by beach look at the action.


Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: Osprey (April 2011)
Language: English
Authors: Ken Ford and Steven J. Zaloga
RRP: £12.99 ($24.95)