Command and Valour: The Grand Strategy of D-Day & the Battle for Normandy and How 21 Heroic Deeds Helped Enable Victory

With D-Day and the Battle for Normandy being one of the most written about episodes of military history, it would be easy to assume that after 75 years had passed, that generations of historians would by now, have reached a consensus as to who were the leading protagonists in leading the way for the Western Allies most famous victory during the Second World War. It is indeed amazing to consider that many of the most commonly held perceptions of what exactly happened in 1944 are nothing but deeply ingrained myths, repeated so often that they now go unchallenged.

In Command and Valor, the author addresses these myths head on, and without taking prisoners, readdresses the truth of the battle reaching conclusions which may surprise many of those who thought they already knew all there was to know on such an iconic subject. Alongside this story, the author recounts, for the very first time in a single volume, the instances of incredible valor which led to the 21 Victoria Crosses and Medals of Honor to be awarded during the Normandy campaign.

Table of Contents

Preface / Acknowledgements
Introduction

PART ONE
Chapter One A History of the Medal of Honor and Victoria Cross
Chapter Two Operation Overlord

PART TWO
Chapter Three The President's Son
Chapter Four Bloody Omaha
Chapter Five The Man They Couldn't Kill

PART THREE
Chapter Six Consolidation
Chapter Seven Cutting the Peninsula
Chapter Eight Objective Cherbourg
Chapter Nine How the West was Won
Chapter Ten Colossal Cracks

PART FOUR
Chapter Eleven Breakout for Victory
Chapter Twelve Setting the Trap
Chapter Thirteen Tying the Noose
Chapter Fourteen Dante's Inferno
Chapter Fifteen

Conclusion

APPENDICES
One Travelling to Normandy / Visiting the Battlefield Today
Two German Order of Battle / First Deployment
Three Bibliography / Suggested Reading