Overlord's eagles : operations of the United States Army Air Forces in the invasion of Normandy in World War II /

Sullivan, a former WW II US Marine Corps pilot, has written a serious study of the air campaigns that preceded the D-Day 1944 invasion of France. He has consulted the manuscript collections in the Library of Congress, the National Archives, and the Air University at Maxwell Air Force Base. The result is a balanced, critical look at both the "transportation" and the interdiction campaigns against the railway system of northeast France in the attempt to hamper the German movement of reinforcements and to isolate the battlefield. Sullivan presents a careful analysis of who originated the campaigns and, more important, who assessed them at the time and subsequently in their memoirs. This makes for a highly revealing study that ought to be read not only by aviation buffs and experts, but also by military historians in general. In his analysis, Sullivan points to self-serving investigations, twisted statistics, and false logic. His general theme is that the transportation plan was wasteful and ineffective because it targeted marshaling yards and repair facilities, and did so much too early to hamstring German divisions that did not start to move until after D-Day. In contrast, he notes that the fighter-bomber and medium attacks on railways and canals right around D-Day were far more cost-effective. All levels. R. Higham; Kansas State University