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84-452: After the draft was reinstated in the U.S. in 1940 , millions of young soldiers found themselves in barracks and training camps, where they were often bored. The head of the Army's Library Section, Raymond L. Trautman , sought to remedy this by purchasing one book per soldier, but when that failed, librarians launched a nationwide book collection campaign. This " Victory Book Campaign " collected

168-635: A second front in Western Europe. Churchill declined because he felt that even with American help the British did not have adequate forces to do it, and he wished to avoid costly frontal assaults such as those that had occurred at the Somme and Passchendaele in World War I . Two tentative plans code-named Operation Roundup and Operation Sledgehammer were put forward for 1942–43, but neither

252-1319: A book as he embarked his invasion transport. The ASE program featured an array of fiction and non-fiction titles, including classics, contemporary bestsellers, biographies, drama, poetry, and genre fiction (mysteries, sports, fantasy, action/adventure, westerns). Most of these books were printed in unabridged versions. Authors included Hervey Allen , Robert Benchley , Stephen Vincent Benét , Max Brand , Joseph Conrad , A. J. Cronin , Carl Crow , Eugene Cunningham, James Oliver Curwood , Clyde Brion Davis , Walter D. Edmonds , Edward Ellsberg , William Faulkner , Peter Field , F. Scott Fitzgerald , C. S. Forester , Erle Stanley Gardner , Edmund Gilligan , Arthur Henry Gooden , Zane Grey , Ernest Haycox , MacKinlay Kantor , Frances and Richard Lockridge , Jack London , H. P. Lovecraft , William Colt MacDonald , John P. Marquand , Ngaio Marsh , W. Somerset Maugham , Clarence E. Mulford , John O'Hara , George Sessions Perry , Edgar Allan Poe , William MacLeod Raine , Eugene Manlove Rhodes , Craig Rice , Charles Alden Seltzer , Percy Bysshe Shelley , Luke Short , Thorne Smith , John Steinbeck , George R. Stewart , Bram Stoker , Grace Zaring Stone , James Thurber , W. C. Tuttle , Mark Twain , H. G. Wells , and Philip Wylie . The distinctive covers bore

336-476: A cargo pocket. Finished size varied slightly, from 5 + 1 ⁄ 2  in (14 cm) to 6 + 1 ⁄ 2  in (17 cm) long and from 3 + 7 ⁄ 8  in (9.8 cm) to 4 + 1 ⁄ 2  in (11 cm) high. Unlike traditional paperbacks, most of the ASEs were bound on the short side of the text block rather than the long side, due to the printing presses used. A few titles near

420-606: A front line from Caumont-l'Éventé to the south-east of Caen in order to protect the American flank, while establishing airfields near Caen. Possession of Caen and its surroundings would give the Anglo-Canadian forces a suitable staging area for a push south to capture the town of Falaise . A secure lodgement would be established and an attempt made to hold all territory captured north of the Avranches -Falaise line during

504-469: A million books in its first month, but its efforts dropped off when the Army rejected many of the donated books as unsuitable for soldiers, and the bulky hardcovers were found to be unsuitable for use in the field. The campaign ended in 1943. In that year, in collaboration with the graphic artist H. Stanley Thompson and the publisher and CWB executive Malcolm Johnson, Trautman proposed his idea of "Armed Services Editions": mass-produced paperbacks selected by

588-481: A naval convoy approaching Cap d'Antifer (about 80 km from the actual D-Day landings). The illusion was bolstered by a group of small vessels towing barrage balloons . No. 218 Squadron RAF also dropped "window" near Boulogne-sur-Mer in Operation Glimmer . On the same night, a small group of Special Air Service (SAS) operators deployed dummy paratroopers over Le Havre and Isigny. These dummies led

672-555: A necessary element of the plan for the landings. Information on the exact date and location of the landings was provided only to the topmost levels of the armed forces. Men were sealed into their marshalling areas at the end of May, with no further communication with the outside world. Troops were briefed using maps that were correct in every detail except for the place names, and most were not told their actual destination until they were already at sea. A news blackout in Britain increased

756-459: A panel of literary experts from among classics, bestsellers, humor books and poetry. The support of William Warder Norton , chairman of the CWB's executive committee and president of the publishing house W. W. Norton , was instrumental for the project to be realized. Apart from the Army and Navy (through chief librarian Isabel DuBois ), over seventy publishers and a dozen printing houses collaborated on

840-470: A relatively narrow isthmus , so these sites were rejected. The Pas de Calais, the closest point in continental Europe to Britain, was the location of launch sites for V-1 and V-2 rockets , then still under development. The Germans regarded it as the most likely initial landing zone and accordingly made it the most heavily fortified region; however, it offered the Allies few opportunities for expansion as

924-509: A second attack would take place at Calais. Military and civilian personnel alike were aware of the need for secrecy, and the invasion troops were as much as possible kept isolated, especially in the period immediately before the invasion. American general Henry J. F. Miller was sent back to the United States in disgrace after revealing the invasion date at a party. The Germans thought they had an extensive network of spies operating in

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1008-622: The 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend , were, for the most part, younger and far better equipped and trained than the static troops stationed along the coast. In early 1944, OB West was significantly weakened by personnel and materiel transfers to the Eastern Front. During the Soviet Dnieper–Carpathian Offensive (24 December 1943 – 17 April 1944), the German High Command was forced to transfer

1092-698: The 21st Army Group , which comprised all the land forces involved in the operation. The Normandy coast in northwestern France was chosen as the site of the landings, with the Americans assigned to land at sectors codenamed Utah and Omaha , the British at Sword and Gold , and the Canadians at Juno . To meet the conditions expected on the Normandy beachhead, special technology was developed, including two artificial ports called Mulberry harbours and an array of specialised tanks nicknamed Hobart's Funnies . In

1176-535: The Armoured Ramp Carrier , which other tanks could use as a bridge to scale sea-walls or to overcome other obstacles. In some areas, the beaches consisted of a soft clay that could not support the weight of tanks. The Bobbin tank unrolled matting over the soft surface, leaving it behind as a route for ordinary tanks. The Assault Vehicle Royal Engineers (AVRE) was a Churchill tank modified for many combat engineering tasks, including laying bridges; it

1260-809: The BBC produced over ten million items, some of which proved useful. The French resistance provided details on Axis troop movements and on construction techniques used by the Germans for bunkers and other defensive installations. Many German radio messages were encoded using the Enigma machine and other enciphering techniques and the codes were changed frequently. A team of code breakers stationed at Bletchley Park worked to break codes as quickly as possible to provide advance information on German plans and troop movements. British military intelligence code-named this information Ultra intelligence as it could only be provided to

1344-732: The British Expeditionary Force ) in the Dunkirk evacuation (27 May to 4 June). British planners reported to Prime Minister Winston Churchill on 4 October that even with the help of other Commonwealth countries and the United States, it would not be possible to regain a foothold in continental Europe in the near future. After the Axis invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin began pressing for

1428-536: The Eastern Front , meant the Germans no longer had a pool of able young men from which to draw. German soldiers were now on average six years older than their Allied counterparts. Many in the Normandy area were Ostlegionen (eastern legions)—conscripts and "volunteers" from Turkestan , Russia, Mongolia, and elsewhere. The Wehrmacht had provided them mainly with unreliable captured equipment; they lacked motorised transport. Formations that arrived later, such as

1512-691: The English Channel on 6 June, and more than two million Allied troops were in France by the end of August. The decision to undertake cross-channel landings in 1944 was made at the Trident Conference in Washington in May 1943. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was appointed commander of Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force , and General Bernard Montgomery was named commander of

1596-529: The Liberation of Paris followed on 25 August. German forces retreated east across the Seine on 30 August 1944, marking the close of Operation Overlord. In June 1940, Germany's leader Adolf Hitler had triumphed in what he called "the most famous victory in history"—the fall of France . British craft evacuated to England over 338,000 Allied troops trapped along the northern coast of France (including much of

1680-692: The Library of Congress . A near-complete set (lacking 16 titles) is in the library of the University of Alabama . Other American university libraries hold partial collections of up to several hundred books. In November 2002, Andrew Carroll used a $ 50,000 corporate donation to print 100,000 copies of four new Armed Services Editions to active-duty American military personnel serving in combat zones overseas. The books were: William Shakespeare 's Henry V , Sun Tzu 's The Art of War , Allen Mikaelian's Medal of Honor: Profiles of America's Military Heroes from

1764-648: The Supermarine Spitfire and Hawker Typhoon greatly limited the number of potential landing-sites, as comprehensive air support depended upon having planes overhead for as long as possible. Morgan considered four sites for the landings: Brittany , the Cotentin Peninsula , Normandy, and the Pas de Calais . As Brittany and Cotentin are peninsulas, the Germans could have cut off the Allied advance at

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1848-477: The Transport Plan , communications infrastructure and road and rail links were bombed to cut off the north of France and to make it more difficult to bring up reinforcements. These attacks were widespread so as to avoid revealing the exact location of the invasion. Elaborate deceptions were planned to prevent the Germans from determining the timing and location of the invasion. The coastline of Normandy

1932-616: The Trident Conference in Washington in May 1943 took the decision to launch a cross-Channel invasion within the next year. Churchill favoured making the main Allied thrust into Germany from the Mediterranean theatre , but the Americans, who were providing the bulk of the men and equipment, over-ruled him. British Lieutenant-General Frederick E. Morgan was appointed Chief of Staff, Supreme Allied Commander (COSSAC), to begin detailed planning. The initial plans were constrained by

2016-430: The highest tides . The Allies wanted to schedule the landings for shortly before dawn, midway between low and high tide, with the tide coming in. This would improve the visibility of obstacles the enemy had placed on the beach while minimising the amount of time the men had to spend exposed in the open. Specific criteria were also set for wind speed, visibility, and cloud cover. Eisenhower had tentatively selected 5 June as

2100-765: The ASE ensued when Title V of the Soldier Voting Act of 1944 limited the distribution of government-financed information to soldiers. The act was sponsored by Senator Robert A. Taft , who feared that the Roosevelt administration would distribute propaganda in favor of the president's reelection to a fourth term. The Army strictly enforced the act and, as a result, banned the ASE publication of Charles A. Beard 's history The Republic and Catherine Drinker Bowen 's O. W. Holmes biography Yankee from Olympus among other works. After vigorous public backlash, Congress amended

2184-653: The ASEs. To appease some publishers' concerns, a legal commitment was made that prevented the domestic distribution and post-war resale of surplus books, and educational and scientific books were excluded. The CBW appointed Philip Van Doren Stern , a printing expert and former Pocket Books executive, as project manager. The volunteer advisory panel that selected the books comprised notable figures from publishing and literature. Its initial members were John C. Farrar , William M. Sloane , Jeanne Flexner , Nicholas Wreden , Mark Van Doren , Amy Loveman and Harry Hansen . The panel met twice weekly, selecting publications from among

2268-503: The Armed Services". Soldiers wrote that the ASEs "are as popular as pin-up girls ", or that "to heave one in the garbage can is tantamount to striking your grandmother". A study found that the most popular "deal frankly with sexual relations (regardless of tone, literary merit and point of view, no matter whether the book is serious or humorous, romantically exciting or drably pedestrian)". Authors received voluminous fan mail from

2352-644: The Army Karl R. Bendetsen said in an oral history interview, " Mr. Rayburn banged the gavel at a critical moment and declared the Bill had passed." The Senate approved it by a wider margin, and Roosevelt signed the Service Extension Act of 1941 into law on August 18. Some of the soldiers drafted in October 1940 talked about desertion once their original twelve-month obligation ended. Some painted

2436-673: The British side, Lieutenant-General Miles Dempsey commanded the Second Army , under which XXX Corps was assigned to Gold and I Corps to Juno and Sword. Land forces were under the command of Montgomery, and air command was assigned to Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory . The First Canadian Army included personnel and units from Poland , Belgium, and the Netherlands. Other Allied nations participated. The Allied Expeditionary Air Force flew over 3,200 photo-reconnaissance sorties from April 1944 until 6 June. Photos of

2520-658: The Civil War to the Present , and Carroll's own War Letters: Extraordinary Correspondence from American Wars. They were published by Hyperion , Dover Publications and Washington Square Press . None of the books were on the original list of ASEs. Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 The Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 , also known as the Burke–Wadsworth Act , Pub. L.   76–783 , 54  Stat.   885 , enacted September 16, 1940 ,

2604-724: The Combined Training Centre in Inveraray in Scotland. Naval exercises took place in Northern Ireland, and medical teams in London and elsewhere rehearsed how they would handle the expected waves of casualties. Paratroopers conducted exercises, including a huge demonstration drop on 23 March 1944 observed by Churchill, Eisenhower, and other top officials. Allied planners considered tactical surprise to be

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2688-924: The Germans to believe an additional airborne assault had occurred. Training exercises for the Overlord landings took place as early as July 1943. As the nearby beach resembled the planned Normandy landing-site, the town of Slapton in Devon , was evacuated in December 1943, and taken over by the armed forces as a site for training exercises that included the use of landing craft and the management of beach obstacles. A friendly fire incident there on 27 April 1944 resulted in as many as 450 deaths. The following day, an additional estimated 749 American soldiers and sailors died when German torpedo-boats surprised members of Assault Force "U" conducting Exercise Tiger . Exercises with landing craft and live ammunition also took place at

2772-590: The Low Countries, with another 18 stationed in Denmark and Norway. Fifteen divisions were in the process of formation in Germany, but there was no strategic reserve. The Calais region was defended by the 15th Army under Generaloberst (Colonel General) Hans von Salmuth , and Normandy by the 7th Army commanded by Generaloberst Friedrich Dollmann . Combat losses throughout the war, particularly on

2856-460: The President, or shall if he is found to be conscientiously opposed to participation in such noncombatant service, in lieu of such induction, be assigned to work of national importance under civilian direction. The draft began in October 1940, with the first men entering military service on November 18. By the early summer of 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked the U.S. Congress to extend

2940-516: The Selective Training and Service Act on December 20, 1941, made all men between the ages of 20 and 44 liable for military service, and required all men between the ages of 18 and 64 to register. The terminal point of service was extended to the duration of the conflict plus six months. Another amendment, signed on November 13, 1942, made the registered 18- and 19-year-olds liable for military service. From October 1940 until March 1947, when

3024-578: The UK, but in fact, all their agents had been captured, and some had become double agents working for the Allies as part of the Double-Cross System . The double agent Juan Pujol García , a Spanish opponent of the Nazis known by the code name "Garbo", developed over the two years leading up to D-Day a fake network of informants that the Germans believed were collecting intelligence on their behalf. In

3108-429: The act to make it less restrictive. Distribution of ASEs began in October of 1943 and continued until 1947. The books were issued to soldiers overseas, such as in hospitals and on transports, and air-dropped as part of the supplies destined for remote outposts. Notably, just before the invasion of Normandy , a mass distribution of ASE titles took place among the troops marshalled in southern England, and each man received

3192-636: The age of 45, or was discharged, whichever came first. Inductees had to remain in the Western Hemisphere or in United States possessions or territories located in other parts of the world. The act provided that except in time of war, not more than 900,000 men were to be in training at any one time. Section 5 (g) of the Act contained a provision for conscientious objection : Nothing contained in this Act shall be constructed to require any person to be subject to combatant training and service in

3276-501: The area is bounded by numerous rivers and canals. On the other hand, landings on a broad front in Normandy would permit simultaneous threats against the port of Cherbourg , coastal ports further west in Brittany, and an overland attack towards Paris and eventually into Germany. The Allies therefore chose Normandy as the landing site. The most serious drawback of the Normandy coast – the lack of port facilities – would be overcome through

3360-474: The area to bolster the illusion that a large force was gathering there. As well as the broadcast of fake radio-traffic, genuine radio messages from 21st Army Group were first routed to Kent via landline and then broadcast, to give the Germans the impression that most of the Allied troops were stationed there. Patton remained stationed in England until 6 July, thus continuing to deceive the Germans into believing

3444-511: The binding, in addition to being glued, to make them sturdier. Because the Council on Books in Wartime made use of magazine presses to print ASEs when the presses were not in use, printing costs were low. The cost for printing was around 6 cents per copy, and royalties of one cent per copy were split between authors and publishers. This early experiment with mass paperback printing helped to prove

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3528-455: The capture of the port at Cherbourg. This significant expansion required the acquisition of additional landing craft, which caused the invasion to be delayed by a month until June 1944. Eventually the Allies committed 39 divisions to the Battle of Normandy: 22 American, 12 British, three Canadian, one Polish, and one French, totalling over a million troops. "Overlord" was the name assigned to

3612-574: The coastline were taken at extremely low altitude to show the invaders the terrain, obstacles on the beach, and defensive structures such as bunkers and gun emplacements. To conceal the location of the invasion, sorties were flown along all European coastline. Inland terrain, bridges, troop emplacements, and buildings were also photographed, in many cases from several angles. Members of Combined Operations Pilotage Parties clandestinely prepared detailed harbour maps, including depth soundings . An appeal for holiday pictures and postcards of Europe announced on

3696-903: The conditions would be unfavourable for Allied aircraft. After much discussion, Eisenhower decided that the invasion should go ahead. Allied control of the Atlantic meant that German meteorologists did not have access to as much information as the Allies on incoming weather patterns. As the Luftwaffe meteorological centre in Paris predicted two weeks of stormy weather, many Wehrmacht commanders left their posts to attend war games in Rennes , and men in many units were given leave. Marshal Erwin Rommel returned to Germany for his wife's birthday and to meet Hitler to try to get more tanks. Had Eisenhower postponed

3780-544: The date for the assault; however, on 4 June, conditions were clearly unsuitable for a landing, as high winds and heavy seas made it impossible to launch landing craft, and low clouds would prevent aircraft from finding their targets. By the evening of 4 June, the Allied meteorological team, headed by Group Captain James Stagg of the Royal Air Force , predicted that the weather would improve sufficiently so that

3864-401: The day before their 65th birthday were required to register. The first peacetime conscription in the United States , the act required all American men between the ages of 21 and 35 to register and be placed in order for call to military service determined by a national lottery. If drafted, a man served on active duty for 12 months, and then in a reserve component for 10 years, until he reached

3948-542: The description, "Armed Services Edition: This is the Complete Book – Not a Digest." Seventy-nine of the titles printed were abridged, usually for length rather than content, and their covers were marked to reflect this fact. Over the life of the program, over 122 million copies of ASE books were printed. This makes the ASE program one of the largest wide-scale distributions of free books in history. 1,225 were unique titles and 99 were reprints of titles issued earlier in

4032-540: The development and deployment of artificial harbours. The COSSAC staff planned to begin the invasion on 1 May 1944. The initial draft of the plan was accepted at the Quebec Conference in August 1943. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was appointed commander of Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF). General Bernard Montgomery was named commander of the 21st Army Group , which comprised all of

4116-461: The east since the creation of Führer Directive 51 , which no longer allowed any transfers from the west to the east. There were also transfers to the Italian front: von Rundstedt complained that many of his best units had been sent on a "fool's errand" to Italy, saying it was "madness ... that frightful boot of a country should have been evacuated ... we should have held a decent front with

4200-526: The eastern flank to secure the Orne River bridges, and north of Carentan on the western flank. The initial goal was to capture Carentan, Isigny , Bayeux , and Caen. The Americans, assigned to land at Utah and Omaha, were to cut off the Cotentin Peninsula and capture the port facilities at Cherbourg. The British at Sword and Gold , and the Canadians at Juno , were to capture Caen and form

4284-464: The effectiveness of the deception operations. Travel to and from the Republic of Ireland was banned, and movement within several kilometres of the coast of England restricted. The invasion planners specified a set of conditions regarding the timing of the invasion, deeming only a few days in each month suitable. A full moon was desirable, as it would provide illumination for aircraft pilots and have

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4368-518: The end of the series were published in traditional paperback format with the spine on the long side. A "two-up" process was frequently used to produce the books, in which the upper and lower halves of each page and the cover contained text from two different works. Once the entire volume was bound, it was cut in half across its width to separate the books. Armed Services Editions were printed on digest and pulp magazine presses, usually in two columns per page for easier reading. Some ASEs were stapled along

4452-476: The entire II SS Panzer Corps from France, consisting of the 9th and 10th SS Panzer Divisions, as well as the 349th Infantry Division , 507th Heavy Panzer Battalion and the 311th and 322nd StuG Assault Gun Brigades. All told, the German forces stationed in France were deprived of 45,827 troops and 363 tanks, assault guns, and self-propelled anti-tank guns. It was the first major transfer of forces from France to

4536-502: The establishment of a large-scale lodgement on the Continent. The first phase, the amphibious invasion and establishment of a secure foothold, was code-named Operation Neptune and is often referred to as "D-Day". To gain the required air superiority needed to ensure a successful invasion, the Allies launched a strategic bombing campaign (codenamed Pointblank ) to target German aircraft-production, fuel supplies, and airfields. Under

4620-529: The expectation that fuel would be difficult or impossible to obtain on the continent, the Allies built a "Pipe-Line Under The Ocean" ( PLUTO ). Specially developed pipes 3 in (76 mm) in diameter were to be laid under the Channel from the Isle of Wight to Cherbourg by D-Day plus 18. Technical problems and the delay in capturing Cherbourg meant the pipeline was not operational until 22 September. A second line

4704-474: The first day, but gained a tenuous foothold that they gradually expanded when they captured the port at Cherbourg on 26 June and the city of Caen on 21 July. A failed counterattack by German forces in response to Allied advances on 7 August left 50,000 soldiers of the German 7th Army trapped in the Falaise pocket by 19 August. The Allies launched a second invasion from the Mediterranean Sea of southern France (code-named Operation Dragoon ) on 15 August, and

4788-508: The first three weeks. The Allied armies would then swing left to advance towards the River Seine . The invasion fleet, led by Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay , was split into the Western Naval Task Force (under Admiral Alan Kirk ) supporting the American sectors and the Eastern Naval Task Force (under Admiral Sir Philip Vian ) in the British and Canadian sectors. The American forces of the First Army , led by Lieutenant General Omar Bradley , comprised VII Corps (Utah) and V Corps (Omaha). On

4872-408: The frontlines. ASEs were the first books some readers had picked up since high school, and for some, the first they had read cover to cover. Many authors perceived the selection of their book by the ASE as a great honor, and it contributed significantly to some of their careers. Many Armed Services Editions remain available from used booksellers. The only complete collection of all ASE books is held at

4956-405: The invasion again, the next available period with the right combination of tides (but without the desirable full moon) was two weeks later, from 18 to 20 June. As it happened, during this period the invaders would have encountered a major storm lasting four days, between 19 and 22 June, that would have made the initial landings impossible. Nazi Germany had at its disposal 50 divisions in France and

5040-418: The invasion could go ahead on 6 June. He met Eisenhower and other senior commanders at their headquarters at Southwick House in Hampshire to discuss the situation. General Montgomery and Major-General Walter Bedell Smith , Eisenhower's chief of staff, were eager to launch the invasion. Admiral Bertram Ramsay was prepared to commit his ships, while Air Chief Marshal Trafford Leigh-Mallory expressed concern that

5124-412: The invasion, the Allies conducted Operation Bodyguard , the overall strategy designed to mislead the Germans as to the date and location of the main Allied landings. Operation Fortitude included Fortitude North, a misinformation campaign using fake radio-traffic to lead the Germans into expecting an attack on Norway, and Fortitude South, a major deception designed to fool the Germans into believing that

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5208-448: The land and naval forces of the United States who, by reason of religious training and belief, is conscientiously opposed to participation in war in any form. Any such person claiming such exemption from combatant training and service because of such conscientious objections whose claim is sustained by the local draft board shall, if he is inducted into the land or naval forces under this Act, be assigned to noncombatant service as defined by

5292-420: The land forces involved in the invasion. On 31 December 1943, Eisenhower and Montgomery first saw the COSSAC plan, which proposed amphibious landings by three divisions , with two more divisions in support. The two generals immediately insisted on expanding the scale of the initial invasion to five divisions, with airborne descents by three additional divisions, to allow operations on a wider front and to speed up

5376-401: The landings would take place at Pas de Calais in July. A fictitious First U.S. Army Group was invented, supposedly located in Kent and Sussex under the command of Lieutenant General George S. Patton . The Allies constructed dummy tanks, trucks, and landing craft, and positioned them near the coast. Several military units, including II Canadian Corps and 2nd Canadian Division , moved into

5460-482: The letters "O H I O" on the walls of their barracks in protest. These letters were an acronym for "Over the hill in October". In August 1941 the Congress extended the tour of duty--it passed the House by a one-vote margin--and O H I O collapsed. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor , on December 7, 1941, millions of American men entered the United States military's ranks both by volunteering and by conscription. Congress declared war in December, and amendments to

5544-475: The months leading up to the landings, the Allies conducted Operation Bodyguard , a substantial military deception that used electronic and visual misinformation to mislead the Germans as to the date and location of the main Allied landings. Adolf Hitler placed Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in charge of developing fortifications all along Hitler's proclaimed Atlantic Wall in anticipation of landings in France. The Allies failed to accomplish their objectives for

5628-523: The months preceding D-Day, Pujol sent hundreds of messages to his superiors in Madrid, messages specially prepared by the British intelligence service to convince the Germans that the attack would come in July at Calais. Many of the German radar stations on the French coast were destroyed by the RAF in preparation for the landings. On the night before the invasion, in Operation Taxable , 617 Squadron (the famous "Dambusters") dropped strips of "window", metal foil that German radar operators interpreted as

5712-459: The most senior commanders. The Enigma code used by Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt , Oberbefehlshaber West (Supreme Commander West; OB West ), commander of the Western Front , was broken by the end of March. German intelligence changed the Enigma codes after the Allied landings but by 17 June the Allies were again consistently able to read them. After the disastrous Dieppe Raid , the Allies developed new technologies for Overlord. To supplement

5796-422: The number 1324 mentioned in the title [of John Jamieson's 1948 history of the ASEs] probably being due to the use of sub-categories with non-consecutive numbers during the course of publication". Lists of all ASEs have been published, among other works, in the appendices to the studies by Molly Guptill Manning (2014) and John Y. Cole (1984). The small books were convenient for soldiers because they fit easily into

5880-526: The number of landing craft , most of which were already committed in the Mediterranean and in the Pacific. In part because of lessons learned in the Dieppe Raid of 19 August 1942, the Allies decided not to directly assault a heavily defended French seaport in their first landing. The failure at Dieppe also highlighted the need for adequate artillery and air support, particularly close air support , and specialised ships able to travel extremely close to shore. The short operating range of British aircraft such as

5964-587: The preliminary offshore bombardment and aerial assaults, some of the landing craft were equipped with artillery and anti-tank guns to provide close supporting fire. The Allies had decided not to immediately attack any of the heavily protected French ports and two artificial ports, called Mulberry harbours , were designed by COSSAC planners. Each assembly consisted of a floating outer breakwater , inner concrete caissons (called Phoenix breakwaters ) and several floating piers. The Mulberry harbours were supplemented by blockship shelters (codenamed "Gooseberries"). With

6048-420: The publishers' suggestions. It aimed at publishing 50 books per month, but soon reduced that goal to 30. The panel mainly focused on selecting recreational reading material, both fiction and nonfiction, primarily drawn from current publications and aiming at "all levels of taste within reasonable limits". The order of publication was chosen at random by pulling names out of a cookie jar; the first book to be printed

6132-427: The series. 63 of the titles were "made books"; they were collections of short stories, poems, plays, essays, or radio plays, usually by the same author, that were assembled and published together for the first time. The number of ASEs is given as 1,322 or 1,324 in different sources. The Library of Congress's catalog record lists 1,322 volumes and explains: "The last listed number is 1322, the discrepancy between that and

6216-442: The spirit of American democracy ' ". The publication of Louis Adamic 's Native's Return as an ASE title caused controversy because the novel's first edition had contained passages that were considered pro-Communist. Although these had been removed in later editions and the ASE version, Congressman George A. Dondero still protested against what he considered government distribution of "Communist propaganda". More serious problems for

6300-525: The term of duty for the draftees beyond twelve months to a total of thirty months, plus any additional time that he might deem necessary for national security. On August 12, the United States House of Representatives approved the extension by a single vote; Roosevelt's former Secretary of War Harry Woodring was among those opposed, writing to Senator Arthur Vandenberg that voluntary enlistment had not been fully tried. As Under Secretary of

6384-439: The viability of paperback publishing in the United States. ASEs were very popular in the armed forces. Copies were shared, re-read, and ripped into sections so they could accommodate two or more readers at once. A contemporary newspaper article recounted: "The hunger for these books, evidenced by the way they are read to tatters, is astounding even to the Army and Navy officers and the book-trade officials who conceived Editions for

6468-951: The wartime Selective Training and Service Act expired after extensions by Congress, over 10,000,000 men were inducted. In 1947, President Harry S. Truman gave a full pardon to 1,523 people convicted of violating the Act. Invasion of Normandy 16,714 Allied airmen killed (8,536 members of the USAAF, and 8,178 flying under the command of the RAF) Civilian deaths: Airborne assault British Sector American Sector Normandy landings American Sector Anglo-Canadian Sector Logistics Ground campaign American Sector Anglo-Canadian Sector Breakout Air and Sea operations Supporting operations Aftermath Luxembourg The Netherlands Belgium France Britain 1941–1943 1944–1945 Germany Strategic campaigns Operation Overlord

6552-419: Was The Education of Hyman Kaplan by Leo Rosten . "Surprisingly", according to John Y. Cole , the ASE series was free from official government censorship . But the Army and Navy chief librarians, Trautman and DuBois, made sure that all books were acceptable to both services, and rejected works with "statements or attitudes offensive to our Allies, any religious or racial group, or [...] not in accord 'with

6636-408: Was armed with a demolition gun that could fire large charges into pillboxes . The Duplex-Drive tank ( DD tank ), another design developed by Hobart's group, was a self-propelled amphibious tank kept afloat using a waterproof canvas screen inflated with compressed air. These tanks were easily swamped, and on D-Day, many sank before reaching the shore, especially at Omaha. In the months leading up to

6720-809: Was deemed by the British to be practical or likely to succeed. Instead, the Allies expanded their activity in the Mediterranean, launching the Operation Torch an invasion of French North Africa in November 1942, the Allied invasion of Sicily in July 1943, and Allied invasion of Italy in September. These campaigns provided the troops with valuable experience in amphibious warfare . Those attending

6804-445: Was divided into seventeen sectors, with code-names using a spelling alphabet —from Able, west of Omaha , to Roger on the east flank of Sword . Eight further sectors were added when the invasion was extended to include Utah on the Cotentin Peninsula. Sectors were further subdivided into beaches identified by the colours Green, Red, and White. Allied planners envisaged preceding the sea-borne landings with airborne drops: near Caen on

6888-564: Was laid from Dungeness to Boulogne in late October. The British built specialised tanks, nicknamed Hobart's Funnies , to deal with conditions expected during the Normandy campaign. Developed under the supervision of Major-General Percy Hobart , these were modified M4 Sherman and Churchill tanks . Examples include the Sherman Crab tank (equipped with a mine flail), the Churchill Crocodile (a flame-throwing tank), and

6972-508: Was the codename for the Battle of Normandy , the Allied operation that launched the successful liberation of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II . The operation was launched on 6 June 1944 ( D-Day ) with the Normandy landings (Operation Neptune). A 1,200-plane airborne assault preceded an amphibious assault involving more than 5,000 vessels. Nearly 160,000 troops crossed

7056-424: Was the first peacetime conscription in United States history. This Selective Service Act required that men who had reached their 21st birthday but had not yet reached their 36th birthday register with local draft boards. Later, when the U.S. entered World War II , all men from their 18th birthday until the day before their 45th birthday were made subject to military service, and all men from their 18th birthday until

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