A lot of Americans get their impressions of World War II from feature films like Saving Private Ryan and TV shows like “Band of Brothers.” As compelling and terrifying as these horrors of war are, they are almost always from the American perspective with little involvement from our allies.

But some 29,000 British troops landed on Sword Beach, second only to the American landing at Omaha Beach. So when a book like Max Hastings’ SWORD BEACH comes out about the British preparation for the assault on Normandy, it almost makes for required reading for anyone interested in that part of history.

"[Hastings] respectfully reports scores of anecdotes from survivors of the battle, as well as those who died in combat, thanks to the notes and letters they left behind."

The majority of Hastings’ previous books are about war, and he has an exceptional talent for detail, even for the seemingly trivial. War is not just the fighting; it’s the monotony of preparation, the long months of training for one particular event that changed the tide of World War II. While the horrors of war are uppermost in SWORD BEACH, Hastings includes the humdrum that comes with months of idleness in preparation for the invasion, as well as the unlikely in the midst of battle.

During a halt in the advance, they noticed a field of strawberries by the roadside and some men began to pick them. A Commando writes, “The poor little French farmer came to me and said: ‘For four years the Germans were here and they never ate one.’”

Some authors might feel a need to “show off,” having spent years researching their work, but it never feels like that with Hastings. He respectfully reports scores of anecdotes from survivors of the battle, as well as those who died in combat, thanks to the notes and letters they left behind.

Seeing the war played out on the big and small screens, the somewhat disrespectful thought that comes to mind is How did we win? This is not to disparage the brave men who did the fighting, but rather the preparations and the unpredictable that conspired to throw a monkey wrench into the planning of D-Day. While such training was necessary and extremely detailed --- the troops trained for years for the operation --- there are things that could not be foreseen, such as the weather or thousands of paratroopers missing their marks, landing miles from the appointed targets.

“As we have seen, several of these units arrived later, and as the morning [on D-Day] advanced, the disembarkation of follow-up units became seriously delayed. But nobody should have expected anything else,” writes Hastings. “The real achievement was that most of the men who were supposed to land on Sword got past the beach alive….” (Some of the most disturbing and realistic images of D-Day occur in the first 20 minutes of Saving Private Ryan.)

As detailed and dramatic as SWORD BEACH is, there are a couple of issues facing the reader. The main one for me is that the author, a citizen of the United Kingdom, has not taken into consideration that members of his audience are not his countrymen. Hastings uses many words and phrases that are, well, foreign to Americans, and he offers no explanation (What's a “sapper”?). Similarly, on the few occasions that he employs French or German, he does not translate. Add to that all of the military jargon, and it can get a bit frustrating. A glossary would have been useful.