D-Day: The World War II Invasion that Changed History (Scholastic Focus) - Hardcover

Hopkinson, Deborah

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0545682487 ISBN 13: 9780545682480

Publisher: Scholastic Focus, 2018

Synopsis

Sibert Honor author Deborah Hopkinson brings her signature action-packed narrative style to one of the most crucial battles of WWII.

The WWII invasion known as D-Day was the largest military endeavor in history. By June 6, 1944, Hitler and his allies had a strong grip on the European continent, where Nazi Germany was engaged in the mass extermination of the Jewish people. The goal of D-Day was the total defeat of Hitler's regime, and the defense of free democracies everywhere. Knowing they had to breach the French coast, the US, Great Britain, and Canada planned for the impossible.

D-Day was an invasion not for conquest, but liberation, and required years to plan and total secrecy to keep the advantage of surprise. Once deployed, Operation Overlord involved soldiers, sailors, paratroopers, and specialists. Acclaimed author Deborah Hopkinson weaves together the contributions of not only D-Day's famous players, but African Americans, women, journalists, and service members in a masterful tapestry of official documents, personal narratives, and archival photos to bring this decisive battle to vivid, thrilling life.

About this title

About the Author:

Deborah Hopkinson is the acclaimed author of over forty award-winning books, including Shutting Out the Sky, an NCTE Orbis Pictus Honor Book and a Jane Addams Peace Award Honor Book; Up Before Daybreak, a Carter G. Woodson Honor Award winner; Titanic: Voices from the Disaster, a YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Finalist and Sibert Honor Book; Courage & Defiance, Stories of Spies, Saboteurs, and Survivors in World War II Denmark, a Sydney Taylor Notable Book and Orbis Pictus Recommended title; and Dive! World War II Stories of Sailors & Submarines in the Pacific. Deborah lives with her family near Portland, Oregon.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

June 6, 1944 -- just past midnight off the coast of Normandy

"'Look, men, look! It's the fleet.'" At the sergeant's voice, paratrooper David Kenyon Webster peered out the window of the rumbling C-47 plane and caught his breath. "'Man, oh man.'"

The clouds had slid off the moon to reveal an extraordinary sight. "Five hundred feet below, spread out for miles on the moonlit sea, were scores and scores of landing barges, destroyers, cruisers, and attack transports," said David. "They were bearing the infantry slowly east, like a flood of lava, to a dawn assault on the shingle shore of Normandy."

He turned back around. "I stared at the men opposite me in the racketing, vibrating, oil-reeking, vomit-scented darkness . . . My stomach tightened and filled with ice, and a voice told me to get ready.

"'It's coming,' the voice said, 'it's coming.'"

Not much longer now. The paratroopers of E Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, were set to jump before one in the morning. They had just a few hours to clear the way for infantry soldiers landing on Utah Beach at dawn. Their mission: to destroy German gun nests and take control of four causeways leading off the beach over a mile of lowlands the enemy had flooded as a defensive measure.

These tracks were the only ways off the beach. If Americans controlled them, the thousands of soldiers landing on the beachhead would be able to move inland, seal off the base of the Cotentin Peninsula, and move north into it to capture the port of Cherbourg. It could make the difference between gaining a real foothold in France -- or being stalled on the shore, giving Germany more time to rush in reinforcements for a counterattack.

About this edition

• Publisher: Scholastic Focus
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 0545682487
• ISBN 13: 9780545682480
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 400