Military Model Scene

Title: Normandy Beyond the Beaches
Author: Jon Diamond
Publisher: Pen & Sword
ISBN: 978-1-39903-296-3

Another in the Images of War series collection, and from one of their regular authors, Jon Diamond. A 207-page soft-cover book.
There are 6 chapters in this one, following an introduction which explains the approach taken with this one. It covers the story from the landings in Normandy and the key points between then and the crossing of the Seine and liberation of Paris. So it starts with the strategic situation and the aims of the Normandy campaign. After defeats at Dunkirk and later at Dieppe the Allies successfully invaded Italy and the German military worked to prepare their defences in North France, expecting an allied invasion to come. Then it moves on the landings themselves, including some classic images of those landings. The next chapter focuses on the Commanders and Combatants involved in the campaign, some successful, others less so. Next it moves to the early inland movements from the beaches, and on to the US First Army and their capture of Cherbourg and the breakout at St Lo. That leaves the last one to tackle the other side of the battlefield, the Anglo-Canadian fight for Caen and on to the Falaise 'Pocket' and the combined advance to Paris.
For those with plenty of books on Normandy, I think you will recognise many of the photos in this book. For those who are still new to the campaign, this holds many classic pictures from the campaign. Throughout the book, all the photos have extensive captions to give context to them all. Perhaps just one slight disappointment for me were the number of mis-identification of vehicles and detail sprinkled throughout the book. While I am the first to admit I make plenty of mistakes in my writing over the years, I was surprised at some of these errors from this experienced author. That aside, this has a remarkable collection of classic photos from the North West Europe campaign of 1944.
Thanks to Pen & Sword for the review copy.

Robin