Reddit reviews D DAY Through German Eyes - The Hidden Story of June 6th 1944

Not questioning what you're saying, especially on a sort of "macro" level but, based on interviews with Germans that were on the beaches there were actually a lot of these tanks that did make it. The Germans were astounded by these machines.

This is a 2 volume series of interviews. It's one of the most incredible reads I've experienced.

https://www.amazon.com/DAY-Through-German-Eyes-Hidden-ebook/dp/B00VX372UE

top-selling Amazon book that tells the story of D Day from the German soldiers’ view is likely a fraud — filled with made-up quotes from veterans who never existed, according to The Times of London.

Experts are shooting holes in the work of Holger Eckhertz, who claimed the accounts in his hit book “D Day Through German Eyes” were collected by his journalist grandfather, it says.

But historians can’t locate any references to soldiers quoted in the book, which ranked no. 4 in Amazon’s top 10 World War II titles — or even the author himself, whose name is not listed in any phone directory in Germany or Britain.

Nor could The Times locate information about the book’s purported publisher, DTZ History Publications, or translation service.



https://nypost.com/2019/05/11/experts-claim-top-selling-world-war-ii-book-is-filled-with-made-up-quotes/amp/

Here's a really fascinating look at D-Day from the German standpoint, which tells about the way Germany still used mules and WWI tactics and the US soldiers typically didn't have the burden of carrying everything. Unlimited jeeps and tanks and fuel... Really good read.

https://www.amazon.com/DAY-Through-German-Eyes-Hidden-ebook/dp/B00VX372UE

A few months ago I read a short pair of books "D Day through German Eyes" - there's a book 1 and a book 2. Note that these books are pretty short - each of them only has five interviews with soldiers at different beaches.


These are sets of interviews that the author's father (who was also former Wehrmacht) conducted with German soldiers in the 1950s, so it's somewhat close to the end of the war. One thing I found interesting was that many of the German soldiers expressed the belief that they were protecting France and the rest of Europe from some combination of Jewish / Capitalist Bankers / Bolshevik domination. The interviewer notes that only one of the interviewees looks back in retrospect and believes that what Germany did was morally wrong. There is an awkward moment when one interviewee pretty much admits to killing Soviet POWs, but abruptly changes the subject before he explicitly says it.


A couple more notes is that this is ultimately a collection of first hand accounts, it's much more about the psychology of the soldiers and their individual experiences, thoughts and biases - rather than a discussion of military tactics or strategy.

I quite literally just read a book, D-Day Through German Eyes, which has an account from an MG42 gunner at Omaha Beach who says the following:

“I had a terror of flame-throwers, as my brother had told me about them from the Russian front. Therefore, when I saw through the smoke a man approaching from the sea up the beach, moving from one obstacle to another, approaching the cliffs, I was alarmed to see that he seemed to be carrying a flame-thrower gun and back pack. I shot him with the MG42 at once, and the bullets evidently ignited the fuel tank on his back. There was a very large explosion, and he disappeared completely in a fireball which went up into the air in a mushroom cloud. Both sides stopped firing for a moment, perhaps because we all saw what happened to this soldier. But then the shooting began again, more intensely than ever.”

So, it’s not a myth. Maybe it doesn’t always happen, but it did happen, at least once, and I’d wager a fair bit more given that gas mixing with air and tracer rounds sound to be an explosive mix.

On a side note, its a pretty short read and its only a few dollars. Its well worth the time and money for anyone interested in the subject. It is probably one of the most violent accounts I’ve ever read about combat. These guys experienced the full weight of allied material superiority and paid the consequences for it.

I really enjoyed that book, but I was kind of bummed to find out there's a lot of controversy surrounding the author (a lot of people think he's full of shit and never did any of the things he claimed to do).

Another great read in a similar vein is D-Day Through German Eyes - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00VX372UE/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title

Pretty graphic eyewitness accounts regarding D-Day, very interesting/enlightening.

D Day Through German Eyes is a pretty interesting read if you're interested in this perspective. I enjoyed it (as much as you can enjoy hearing stories about the atrocities of war).

you can get it here for cheap/free, I thought the book deserved a chance to be bought instead of pirated

They sure did. I'm reading a book right now called "D DAY Through German Eyes - The Hidden Story of June 6th 1944" Amazon link that features lengthy interviews with German soldiers who manned the gun emplacements at Normandy. It's fascinating to read the German perspective of D-Day. The troops were awed by the amassed allied firepower, with ships stretching out to the horizon and a parade of aircraft flying overhead.

I'm about 2/3 through this one:

D DAY Through German Eyes - The Hidden Story of June 6th 1944


If you're interested in WW2, I definitely recommend it. Understandably it does have some pretty graphic content, so just a heads up.

This book has an account of a German defender who fought in a Tobruk bunker for a short time on D Day.

The whole book is amazing (note that I had the title wrong earlier). The detail the soldiers provide is far more graphic and horrible than any movie I've ever seen. D-Day is basically a free-for-all where everyone gets to get killed for free. They've also got an audio book of it which is pretty decent.

Read D-Day Through German Eyes and it's Part 2 sequel, it's amazing to read about what destruction that pre-dawn bombing raid and the day-long Jabo (low-level strafing, WP and rocket) attacks did, and the terribly demoralizing effect it had on the ground troops trying to make sense of where the allies were coming through. I could not put either down once I started them.