Overlord: The Illustrated History of the D-day Landings

Operation Overlord was the largest amphibious military operation ever launched: the greatest armada the world had ever seen was assembled to transport the Allied invasion force of over 150,000 soldiers across the Channel to Normandy and open the long-awaited second front against Hitler's Third Reich.

Just after dawn on June 6, 1944, Allied troops assaulted the beaches of the Cotentin peninsular against stiff German resistance. Coordinated with the amphibious landings were airborne and glider landings, carrying out crucial orders to take key areas, enable the vital link-up between the beaches and secure the bridgehead. Casualties, especially on Omaha Beach, were horrendous, but the assaults were successful, and so began the arduous task of liberating Europe from Nazi occupation.

For fans of Band of Brothers and Anthony Beevor's D-Day, military history enthusiasts and World War 2 historians, Overlord offers a detailed military account of the important campaigns in Normandy in 1944. The book provides a close analysis at the plans and build-up to the operation, and, accompanied by photos, maps and artwork, discusses the events of D-Day in each of the key areas of the operation.

Dr. Stephen Badsey is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of War Studies at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He is a specialist on the history of military ideas and the role of the media in warfare, and has published widely on military subjects ranging from the Crimean War to modern peacekeeping and the future of warfare. He has made frequent contributions as a historian for television and other media, and for numerous tours of battlefields including those of the Franco-Prussian War.

Ken Ford was born in Hampshire in 1943. He trained as an engineer and spent almost thirty years in the telecommunications industry before a change in career led him to become a full time military historian. He is the author of over twenty books on various aspects of World War II. Ken now lives in Southampton.

Steven J. Zaloga received his BA in history from Union College and his MA from Columbia University. He has worked as an analyst in the aerospace industry for over two decades, covering missile systems and the international arms trade, and has served with the Institute for Defense Analyses, a federal think-tank. He is the author of numerous books on military technology and military history, with an accent on the US Army in World War II as well as Russia and the former Soviet Union.