Fascinating content entirely ruined by narration

I found the content so fascinating that I put up with an appalling narration. I’m not sure this was a human at all. The pronunciation of French, German and occasionally, English was woeful. It sounded from some of the odd phraseology and grammar that this was a poorly translated text from German. This was so distracting that I had to listen to most sections several times in order to focus on the story.

Very hard work but I found it just about worth it for content.

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1 person found this helpful

Remarkably detailed but too long

For a specialist student of military history, this book would be ideal. It is a day-by-day account of the build-up to D-Day on the German side. For the general reader, much of the detail seems extraneous and interferes with telling the story of how a régime run by a maniac who surrounded himself with sycophants was certain to lose despite the military genius of Rommel. It also ignores some important questions -- for example, the conversations recorded between senior officers suggest they knew about some of the horrors in the East but deliberately avoided thinking about them. I would have liked to hear more about how and why.

The narrator has one of those American "Voice of God" baritones. I'd prefer a little more engagement with the material, but that's a personal preference, His German pronunciation is acceptable but his French and Dutch are cringeworthy. "Caen" is rendered as "Cannes" and "Boulogne" as "booloney". I'll leave what he does to Vlissingen and Scheveningen to your imagination. How can a producer not get a pronunciation coach in for a couple of hours of training? Unreal

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D-Day a different perspective

This is the first book on WW2 written almost all from the German viewpoint. I really enjoyed learning about how the officers, Rommel, von Runstadt, Merks et al prepared for the invasion that they knew was coming but not when or where. A long book, but the author packs it full of all sorts of really interesting background information and I found I was hooked. If I had had the time I would have binged read. I recommend this book
Gripes? How could the narrator, publisher , producers etc possibly not have known that CAEN is prounounced CARN not CANNES? Not once or twice but every time

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Where did they get the narrator

I managed about eight hours and found the subject really interesting. However, the narration was a huge distraction. He sounded like a failed thespian trying too hard to impress. As others have commented, you needed to spend time to translate the, at times, weired and unrecognisable pronunciation of European locations. Note to self: avoid this narrator

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A fresh perspective on D-Day

D-Day is perhaps the part of a handful of truly important dates in 20th century history. There are libraries of memoirs, histories and films dedicated to it. Frank Kapra's images, Monty's memoirs, the 1965 cinema epic 'D-Day the Longest Day' and for modern viewers 'Saving Private Ryan' and TV's 'Band of Brothers'.

So, it's refreshing to see this well worn path approached from a new perspective. This is third person narrative. So, it's 'he' and 'they' describing the story.

You follow protagonists around and you're being told what they are thinking. This is a fresh approach and one you take on trust because the sources and footnotes are swept aside.

The book was most fascinating at telling some less known stories. The Allies flotilla that wasn't recalled and was steaming along to the Normandy beaches ignoring the lone Alied plant frantically trying to recall them.

As with all histories, the near misses are the most fascinating .

If there were things missing it's the focus on the key players blotted out the voices of ordinary Germans in the foxholes. But maybe in part it's because there's not many of them made it out to write their memoirs.

The narration is broadly good but the Americanisms on some key words does grate.

Worth a punt.

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An extremely interesting alternative view point of the Normandy landings and the build up to them from the German perspective

A superb insight into Germany’s preparations for the invasion. The narrator reading can be a bit irritating with Miss pronunciation of words, and disjointed sentences (pauses in the wrong places,) , but if you can set that aside, this is a fascinating book.

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An interesting perspective.

I thoroughly recommend this title to anyone interested in the events leading up to D-Day.

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Mixed emotions

it was nice to hear about ww2 from a German perspective, they wasn't all monster's they to had families,I found myself feeling tremendous sympathy for the whole war and every nationality involved.

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Fabulous level of detail

A terrific book, packed with details that despite having read dozens of books on the subject were completely new. This provides an insight that is unique and is well worth a listen.

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very good, but could have been better

Rather too much emphasis on Rommel and no mention of the exception caused by our wickedly clever deception units

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