Bennett collects oral histories from men of three United States regiments that participated in the invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. The 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment was the most widely scattered of the American parachute infantry regiments to be dropped on D-Day. However, the efforts of 180 men to stop the advance of an SS Panzer Grenadier division largely have been ignored outside of France. The 116th Infantry Regiment received the highest number of casualties on Omaha Beach of any Allied unit on D-Day. Stationed in England through most of the war, it had been the butt of jokes while other regiments did the fighting and dying in North Africa and the Mediterranean; that changed on June 6, 1944. And the 22nd Infantry Regiment, a unit that had fought in almost every campaign waged by the U.S. Army since 1812, came ashore on Utah Beach quite easily before getting embroiled in a series of savage fights to cross the marshland behind the beach and to capture the German heavy batteries to the north.
Each participant's story is woven into the larger picture of the assault, allowing Bennett to go beyond the largely personal viewpoints yielded by traditional oral history but avoiding the impersonal nature of studies of grand strategy. In addition to the interviews and memoirs Bennett collected, he also discovered fresh documentary evidence from American, British, and French archives that play an important part in facilitating this new approach, as well as archives in Britain and France. The author unearths new stories and questions from D-Day, such as the massacre of soldiers from the 507th at Graignes, Hemevez, and elsewhere. This new material includes a focus on the regimental level, which is all but ignored by historians, while still covering strategic, tactical, and human issues. His conclusions highlight common misperceptions about the Normandy landings. Questions have already been raised about the wisdom of the Anglo-American amphibious doctrine employed on D-Day. In this study, Bennett continues to challenge the assumption that the operation was an exemplary demonstration of strategic planning.

Destination Normandy: Three American Regiments on D-Day (Studies in Military History and International Affairs)

History

Bennett, G. H.

Military

Praeger

This volume explores the radical changes in the historical role of the president since 1945, with an opening chapter looking at the evolving nature of the office from the 18th to the 20th century. The central argument is that after 1945, as the issue of national security became the dominant theme of American politics, the power of the presidency increased enormously. Presidents could now exercise power in the name of, but not always with the consent of, the American people. The paranoia of successive presidents is another theme of the book. Watergate and its impact on presidential power through Ford and Carter is fully explored, as is the reassertion of strong presidential leadership through a dynamic foreign policy under Reagan and Bush. As chief executive of the only remaining superpower, the US president occupies a unique political space. Giving equal weight to domestic and foreign concerns, Harry Bennett offers an account of this key area of contemporary political history.

The American Presidency 1945-2000: Illusions of Grandeur

Americas

Sutton Pub Ltd

<li>A cross-section of the American experience on D-Day </li>
<li>Unique perspective from the regimental level that also integrates strategic and tactical considerations </li>
<li>Stories of largely forgotten acts of valor G. H. Bennett collects oral histories from the soldiers of three American regiments and weaves them into an intimate account of the D-Day invasion of June 6, 1944. Widely scattered during its drop into Normandy, the 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment (82nd Airborne Division) stopped the advance of an SS division. The untested 116th Infantry Regiment (29th Infantry Division) landed on bloody Omaha Beach, where it suffered more casualties than any other regiment that day. Meanwhile, the 22nd Infantry Regiment (4th Infantry Division) easily waded ashore on Utah Beach but faced savage fighting as it moved inland.
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Destination Normandy: Three American Regiments on D-Day (Stackpole Military History Series)

Stackpole Books

This book thoroughly explores and analyses naval policy during the period of austerity that followed the First World War. During this post-war period, as the Royal Navy identified Japan its likely opponent in a future naval war, the British Government was forced to “tighten its belt” and cut back on naval expenditure in the interests of “National Economy”. G.H. Bennett draws connections between the early 20th century and the present day, showing how the same kind of connections exist between naval and foreign policy, the provision of ships for the Royal Navy, business and regional prosperity and employment. The Royal Navy in the Age of Austerity 1919-22 engages with a series of important historiographical debates relating to the history of the Royal Navy, the failures of British Defence policy in the inter-war period and the evolution of British foreign policy after 1919, together with more mundane debates about British economic, industrial, social and political history in the aftermath of the First World War. It will be of great interest to scholars and students of British naval history.

The Royal Navy in the Age of Austerity 1919-22: Naval and Foreign Policy under Lloyd George (Bloomsbury Studies in Military History)

Europe

Bloomsbury Academic

This book examines and analyses the relationship between the RAF, the Free French Movement and the French fighter pilots in WWII. A highly significant subject, this has been ignored by academics on both sides of the Channel. This ground-breaking study will fill a significant gap in the historiography of the War. Bennett's painstaking research has unearthed primary source material in both Britain and France including Squadron records, diaries, oral histories and memoirs. In the post-war period the idea of French pilots serving with the RAF seemed anachronistic to both sides. For the French nation the desire to draw a veil over the war years helped to obscure many aspects of the past, and for the British the idea of French pilots did not accord with the myths of "the Few" to whom so much was owed. Those French pilots who served had to make daring escapes. Classed as deserters they risked court martial and execution if caught. They would play a vital role on D-Day and the battle for control of the skies which followed.

The RAF's French Foreign Legion: De Gaulle, the British and the Re-emergence of French Airpower 1940-45 (Bloomsbury Studies in Military History)

Continuum

From at least as early as the eighteenth century it became a tradition that, following operations involving the Royal Navy, the commanding admiral would report to the Admiralty in the form of an official despatch. Following the French wars of 1792–1815 the despatches were published and that set a precedent. After the Second World War the relevant despatches for 1939–45 were published (from 1947 onwards) as supplements to the London Gazette.The despatches reproduced here, introduced and annotated by Professor Bennett, cover events with a huge bearing on the outcome of the war, such as the convoys in the Mediterranean and to Russia, major amphibious operations and raids such as Dieppe, alongside some of the minor operations involving the Royal Navy and, of course, D-Day. These important documents are published here in an accessible form. We are fortunate that they were written in a way designed to be understood by the public at the time. What they reveal, not only about naval operations but about their authors, is fascinating:‘The landings went very largely according to plan … The operation was interesting.’ (The disastrous Dieppe Raid, August 1942)‘Once the action is joined, and both sides are firing, the enemy will be the first to become erratic.’ (Lt-Commander T. J. Bligh, 15 October 1944)

Admiralty Despatches: The Story of the War from the Battlefront 1939-45

Amberley Publishing

In Desperate Victories, professional historian Harry Bennett provides first-hand accounts and commentary on the British reaction to one of the greatest shocks in military history - the German blitzkrieg in the west. Selecting the official accounts, known as despatches, written by key senior commanders in 1940, the author portrays in the most direct way possible the plans and challenges as the Allies struggled to cope with the German onslaught and to adjust to a whole new style of warfare. Harry Bennett provides a concise and revealing background to the German offensive in the west before providing commentary to each of the carefully chosen despatches, which describe first-hand the plans that would mean either defeat or survival for Britain as the European continent collapsed under the Nazi storm. These documents cover the extraordinary events where British forces somehow escaped annihilation at Dunkirk, the withdrawal from Western France, the retreat from Norway and the desperate fight of 'the few' in the Battle of Britain against overwhelming odds. Although much has been written about all these events, there is no way of getting closer to real history that the first-hand accounts of those who had to make the do-or-die decisions at the time.

Desperate Victories: Military Despatches from Dunkirk to the Battle of Britain

The War for England's Shores examines the Kriegsmarine's S-Boat offensive along the English Channel and the North Sea from 1940 to 1945, together with British (later Allied) responses to nullify that threat. The campaign against the convoys running along the coast of Britain has been overlooked by historians. Swift and armed with torpedoes and mines, the S-Boat posed a serious threat to the convoys forced to run along the British coast as often as six days out of every seven. Using an array of archival materials from Britain, Germany, and the United States, The War for England's Shores examines why the Germans failed to make the most of this opportunity to disrupt the British war economy. G. H. Bennett analyzes how the British slowly nullified the threat by embracing new technologies and developing a system of sea control to gradually force the German S-Boat arm to transition from offensive action against Britain's coastal convoys to the defensive posture of waiting for an invasion of France. Considering the war along Britain's coastal convoy routes in the context of twenty-first-century interest in littoral warfare, this work has vital, current appeal using the German S-Boat campaign of 1940 to 1945 to offer significant and surprising new insights.

The War for England's Shores: S-Boats and the Fight against British Coastal Convoys

Naval_Institute_Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Bennett, G. H.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Bennett, G. H.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Bennett, G. H.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Destination Normandy: Three American Regiments on D-Day (Studies in Military History and International Affairs)

The American Presidency 1945-2000: Illusions of Grandeur

Destination Normandy: Three American Regiments on D-Day (Stackpole Military History Series)

The Royal Navy in the Age of Austerity 1919-22: Naval and Foreign Policy under Lloyd George (Bloomsbury Studies in Military History)

The RAF's French Foreign Legion: De Gaulle, the British and the Re-emergence of French Airpower 1940-45 (Bloomsbury Studies in Military History)

The RAF's French Foreign Legion: De Gaulle, the British and the Re-emergence of French Airpower 1940-45 (Bloomsbury Studies in Military History)

Admiralty Despatches: The Story of the War from the Battlefront 1939-45

Desperate Victories: Military Despatches from Dunkirk to the Battle of Britain

The Royal Navy in the Age of Austerity 1919-22: Naval and Foreign Policy under Lloyd George (Bloomsbury Studies in Military History)

The War for England's Shores: S-Boats and the Fight against British Coastal Convoys