About the book: Bestselling historian Max Hastings has chosen to mark V-E Day not with a book about military operations, but one about the lived experience of the war. Digging into the records of the experiences of soldiers, he conjures up a remarkable picture of the chaos and carnage of the Normandy Landings: one of terrified young men desperate to save their own lives, and the commanders trying to lead them. It is a powerful testament to the realities of war.

About the author: Max Hastings is a British journalist and military historian, who has worked as a foreign correspondent for the BBC, editor-in-chief of The Daily Telegraph and editor of the Evening Standard. He is also the author of thirty books, most significantly histories, which have won several major awards.