This assessment of the D-Day landings and the subsequent struggle for the Falaise Pocket from the defenders' perspective, focuses on the performance of the German commanders on the ground and uses first-hand accounts to give an insight into conditions and contemporary attitudes.

As for their men, they ranged from elite Waffen-SS stormtroopers through to bewildered teenagers, old men, 'recycled' invalids and even anti-communist Eastern legions.The use of flame throwers, particularly the Cromwell “Crocodile” tank, and the effect it had on the German defenders, is described in vivid detail.

Woman tells how she comforted boy, 15, after he and friend, 16, were stabbed to death in Bristol - as tributes are paid to latest victims of Britain's knife crime epidemic: 'I held teen as he lay dying. Imagine having three life-coaches who had been through the toughest mental and physical challenges; a crack team of problem-solvers who knew in their day job that one mistake could be the difference between life - and death. What could be a great narrative is let down not only by the German accents which at times drove me to distraction, but by the fact this is total fiction. I've read about D-Day before, and of course have seen some movie versions of it, but it's always from the Allied perspective.The horrors of the battle, the fear and also the compassion present on the German side are presented without varnish in these memories of ordinary soldiers, many of whom thought they were defending a united Europe and couldn't understand why the Allies wanted to kill them.

They were shocked by the scale of the violence committed by the American / Canadian and English troops that attacked them that morning and could not understand why the Allies hated them so much. However, when a work is purely the remembrances of the men that lived these events then they can't be dismissed or disregarded and these are the stories I love to find no matter what war they describe.Written from the other side and told as much through the words of the veterans as from standard histories, this book is a revelation.