The Germans in Normandy

By: Richard Hargreaves

Narrated by: Chris MacDonnell

Length: 12 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

An account of the D-Day invasion - from the German point of view.

The Allied invasion of Northern France was the greatest combined operation in the history of warfare. Up until now, it has been recorded from the attackers' point of view - whereas the defenders' angle has been largely ignored.

While the Germans knew an invasion was inevitable, no one knew where or when it would fall. Those manning Hitler's mighty Atlantic Wall may have felt secure in their bunkers, but they had no conception of the fury and fire that was about to break. After the initial assaults of June established an Allied bridgehead, a state of stalemate prevailed. The Germans fought with great courage - hindered by lack of supplies and overwhelming Allied control of the air. This book describes the catastrophe that followed, in a unique look at the war from the losing side.

©2006, 2019 Richard Hargreaves (P)2019 Tantor

a different view of Normandy 1944

This book was excellent. I visited Normandy on vacation in 2019, so obviously I am fascinated by this battle history. We went to several battle sites, and we may go again this year. (2020) History is written by the victors, so this book gives the German perspective. Excellent collection of diary accounts of what the soldiers were seeing, from the German side. We deliberately had dinner each night at the English pubs in Bayeux Normandy. Those pubs were full of English history buffs and ex-UK military vets, all sharing battle stories they knew about. We had too much fun bs'n in those pubs. (I got accused of having a thick American accent. I also experienced the most aggressive handshakes imaginable. A lot of beer consumed, and they were all very proud of their military units. I want to go back!) Normandy in the summertime is a great place to vacation, particularly if you are into this subject. Cheers!

Good if you're not familiar

This is a good book if you are not familiar with the events. But if you've seen or read the Longest Day, Patton, Is Paris Burning, and similar movies or books, you will know most of the content. WWII buffs especially will likely find better German perspectives from the many autobiographical books.

One of the best German accounts of D-day in audio.

This book is average about Normandy. It’s up there overall although Normandy ‘44 is better and also on Audible. From a German perspective it’s as good as I’ve heard on Audible. However it’s not the best in that category either if including written books as well.

Nevertheless, I’ve put off this book because the reviews made me think it offered nothing new. I own over 2000 audiobooks and almost all of them are military non fiction. I read a lot about Normandy too. This book is worth a listen. I enjoyed it and learned a couple things. If you’re intimately familiar with the Western front you might not get from it in the way of new facts but the story telling in engaging and enjoyable.

If you’re looking for a good history lesson on the Normandy campaign I would again offer Normandy 44’ or even Six Armies in Normandy as better history lessons but this one is no slouch. If you want Germany stories from Normandy this one is for you.

All in all, I’m glad I finally gave it a chance. I think if you’re interested in this kind of stuff you will get your credits worth with this book.

Horrifying and informative

Having traveled to The Bretagne and Normandie Regions of France this year, I added this book to my library. My mother-in-law was born during the occupation of France while her father was in a German POW camp. The scars of WWI and WWII are still visible on the land and the history of Northern France. Having visited the enormous port of Cherbourg it was fascinating to learn about the occupation and liberation of that historic city. I’m not usually one for military accounts, but this book kept me engaged until the very end. The dévastation of the French countryside, towns and citizens as described in this book is chilling. A poignant reminder of the tragedy of wars.

Great listening

I enjoy stories from the German side, and this one did not disappoint, had my full attention the whole way!

Excellent History

This is an excellent history of the other side in the Battle of Normandy. It is marred, however, by a poor narrator. I don't mind English narrators at all; some are excellent. What I do mind, though, are British narrators pronouncing German and French words with a British accent. It's like fingernails on a blackboard. All audiobooks that include non-English words or place-names should require that the narrator be able to pronounce them correctly!

Interesting, but drags at times

Very informative and well researched.

I particularly liked the first person accounts from the individual German soldier's point of view.

The book drags on a bit, toward the end, once the Allied forces had a strong hold on Normandy. I suppose the author was filling in the timeline, but it feels like there were three or four chapters which were largely dominated by painting a picture of how bad it was for the German troops. I feel like that section could have been condensed.

Lots of history I was unaware of happening during the D Day and the liberation of Western Europe.

Great look at D day and events in German government and military. Lots of little known but important details of the summer and fall of 1944.

well written but contains verbose language.

I loved the book but contains a lot of untranslated German, for some reason. It doesn't contribute much to the narrative, just translate it to English.

Okay book. Flawed narration.

It's an alright account of Operation Overlord and its surrounding events from the German perspective, albeit not as insightful as I'd have liked. I went in expecting a dive into the strategy and thought process of the bad guys, but ended up with a fairly generic rehash of what's already covered in other history books.

The performance of the narrator has its ups and downs. I enjoyed the different 'voices' he did for various figures in this story, and the little sniveling voice he put on when quoting Goebbels got a few laughs out of me. Unfortunately, this narrator also failed at some basic pronunciations. Keitel was turned into "kye-tell", and Valkyrie ended up as "vell-curie". It spoiled an otherwise fine performance.

Awful Narrating

I’ll start by saying that this is a good book; even if you know your history surrounding D Day this is a decent read being mainly from the German view point which isn’t particularly common.

But the way the narrator does his thing is nothing short if scandalous. The fact that he is quite monotone is one thing to deal with, but his pronunciation of simple French words is appalling. Some examples: Boulogne is Bolonya. Caen is Cannes. Saint Mere Eglise is “Eglaze.” Bayeaux is Bi-yoo. Cotentin is Con-Ten-Tin. It is infuriating!! Surely someone does quality assurance checks with these books, or someone monitors the narrator and can point basic errors out!! Honestly I’m still thinking of returning the book, which would feel like a defeat for me as I am enjoying the story. But I will never buy a book narrated by Chris Macdonnell again. Having just listened to Al Murray narrating Sicily’43 (what a great book) with aplomb, to be brought down to this level would have me tearing my hair out if I wasn’t already follicly challenged.

Please Audible, have a word. This book is not worth the price with the way it has been narrated. I’m not a purist, believe you me, but simple, correct pronunciation is a must with all books.

Update - I couldn’t hack it - book returned. MacDonnell defeated me.

Riveting

I was glued to it. Lucky my wife had something to do. She was a WW2 D Day widow for 12 hours.

Thoroughly enjoyable listen.

This is a good narrative of the battle for Normandy. It is not a deep analysis, it focusses on the main personalities on the German side. The narrator is easy to listen to but (frustratingly) he pronounced Lehr (Panzer Lehr) as Leer, rhyming with here. Lehr should rhyme with hair, or in German, Herr

wasn't the easiest narrator to follow

wasn't the best narrator, often couldn't bwork out what was being quoted from a speech or if it was just the general story being told ,bit disappointing really as the intro said it would be alot more personal from a personal perspective but was far more generic .

very informative

a good listen, learnt lots about both sides , hard life by both sides

From The German Point of View

A unique view of the war from the German point of view. Fascinating and very unusual observations because we generally only hear the Allied viewpoint. I learnt a lot and gained even more respect for the fighting German soldier. I feel that what the book lacks is an overview of how the various elements of the clashes after D Day relate to each other to paint a broader interlocking picture.

Having said that this book is excellent at detailing on the one hand the overwhelming Allied equipment, men and in particular total air superiority and on the other hand how despite outrageous odds the Germans resisted. On the subject of the narrator, he does not do the content justice and is in my opinion second rate and presumably hired for the American market. However even he can't detract from the excellent quality of the book!

A great insight into the Germanys war end

This is a very good listen, it tells of how the German army we're never to give up the war, they had to fight to the end, in battle after battle to hold the Weston front after the Normandy loss, it was told very well I thought, describing the sights of the beach horrors through German eyes the continuing to describe stories of German soldier losses, and the false hope of won battles .I recommend this book to WWII followers to hear a German account of Normandy and then the French battles that put an end to Germany's war.

German view points

was a fast flowing beautifully narrated book expertly written from the german view point. The author is up there with beevor in my humble opinion

Well written, narration not 100%

The book was well written with a mostly clear sequence of events which made it easy to follow. Definitely a useful insight into the battle particularly the descriptions of the Falaise pocket.


One annoyance in the narration for me was that the narrator seemed unsure weather to affect a different tone or accent to his voice when quoting people directly leading to it often not being clear if he was stating fact or quoting someone. The voice he chose when quoting Hitler in the first few chapters also had strong undertones of Warwick Davies which conjured a distracting comical image.

But was free so can’t complain.

not bad for a freebie

As the author admits, he’s a journalist and not a military historian, focusing more on the human level of conflict. Apart from the terrible pronunciation of several words in the book, the other thing I disliked about this book is the fact he praises the ordinary German soldier, and the young SS men, using quotes about how superior they were to the tommies and the amis, despite the campaign ending in disaster at Falaise and nearly two armies being destroyed. It makes me laugh when they use German quotes about the material superiority of the allies, like outproducing your enemies in war is a form of cheating. Leading on from the previous point, to not mention a SINGLE war crime during this period I find shocking. Talking about the utter destruction of the 12th HJ during their desperate fighting, but forgetting about running over Canadian POWS with their panzers etc. Fine for a freebie on audible but glad I didn’t pay for it.