6 June 1944, 4 a.m. Hundreds of boats assemble off the coast of France. By nightfall, thousands of the men they carry will be dead.

This was D-Day, the most important day of the twentieth century.

In Sand and Steel, one of Britain’s leading military historians offers a panoramic new account of the Allied invasion of France. Drawing on a decade of new research, Peter Caddick-Adams masterfully recreates what it was like to wade out onto the carnage of Omaha Beach, or parachute behind enemy lines in Normandy. He explores the year-long preparations that went into the invasion, overturning decades-old assumptions about Allied strategy. And he pays tribute to the remarkable individuals who made D-Day possible – not just soldiers on the beaches, but also paratroopers, sailors, aircrews, and women on the Home Front.

The result is a compulsively readable account of the greatest battle of the Second World War. It will be the definitive work on D-Day for years to come.