Invasion of France and Germany, 1944-945 (History of United States Naval Operations in World War II)

This series is starting to draw to a close, as is the war in Europe. In what is the final volume of this history that is focused on actions in the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, we focus on two major land invasions that involved the Navy. Operations Overlord and Dragoon take center stage. With the German mainline navy bottled up in port, the U-boat menace having been mostly dealt with (and described in the previous volume) there really is almost no stopping the Allied Navies as they plan and execute these two amphibious landing operations.The first half or more of the book focuses on the invasion of Normandy (Overlord) as well as the naval preparations for it (Neptune). We read about the troop accumulations in England; about how the higher command was set up and its planning organizations; about how the decisions were made to perform the operation; and about the practice runs leading up to the invasion. Finally, we also read about the German preparations to repel the invasion and why their efforts were so unsuccessful. In a way, this book is an overview of everything that went on. There have been many books published on various aspects of this operation, and many of them have been longer than this one, while covering one small aspect of the overall operation. This book still presents the overview that matches the rest of the series and does so as well as the others.The other main part of this book is the description of the Navy's activities during operation Dragoon which was the invasion of Southern France about two months after the Normandy invasion. There was even less interference from the Germans in this one so it became almost a textbook case of how to perform an amphibious invasion. The book then concludes with a few minor operations to complete the picture of what took place in Europe during this war.While the two invasions were key moments in the war, the Navy's portion was pretty much the same and there were not significant naval battles involved. That seemed to have kind of deflated the storytelling aspects of this book. The heart of the author was seemingly just not there as he, and his team, do not seem to get as excited about the activities of PT boats, minesweepers, LST's or the myriad other vessels that were the real actors at this stage of the war in Europe. A perfect example is the description of the use of some of the smaller boats in crossing the Rhine. It was mentioned but there were really no anecdotes told about it and it was simply thrown in for completeness because the Navy did participate.

For research I was doing, this was recommended to me by the Navy department. On the one hand, it was written right after the end of the war, by somone who served and by someone who had access to many senior people while the war was fresh in their minds and they of course were still alive, and for those reasons I found it valuable. On the other hand, due to all the additional information that has been released since then, it is quite out of date on many facts. However, for my research it served it's purpose. I want to make clear it is well written and full of solid factual information, and for anyone doing research, either for personal or professional reasons, any individual volume in the series could be quite useful.

I decided that I wanted to have the complete 15 volume series of these books. I proceeded to buy them individually, used and hardcover. I acquired them quickly through Amazon and am very happy to have them. The supplier was very efficient. Morison's series on Naval Operations in WWII is just wonderful: readable and inspiring.

Excellent text in well respected series.

Came on time and as described

Nothing can be written better than by that old Morison

I found this book to be very complete regarding the preparation, the landings and events following the invasion of France and Germany. In this book, Samuel Morison takes you there.

I have read the entire series History of United States Naval Operations in World War II by Morison. The Neptune part of D-Day cannot be separated from Overlord for the period covered by this book. Once engaged, the Navy was there to stay and they did more than just land troops and equipment, sometimes not quite, to the beaches. Thinking of thin skinned destroyers trading shell fire with Panzers while almost running aground in an effort to clear the beach approach roads and the old battleship Texas taking hits and casualties while dueling with Nazi shore batteries raises the hair on my neck. It is an exciting story and Morison covers it from invasion planning to the inland battle for Caen.