Wow, what a tour de force. This book tells the story of the battle of Normandy, following the D-Day landings in the Second World War. We've all studied them at school, and generally we've concentrated on the famous landings, but not really taken in the detail (and horror) of the subsequent battle to drive the Germans back.

This book tells that story, through the eyes of three young men : James Taylor, Mark Crawford and Bill Judd. The author says he aimed to show what the war was like for the young men who did the fighting in Normandy and he certainly achieves that. Carefully researched, it takes us through the battle from the point of view of a tank man, an infantry officer and low ranking soldier. He doesn't glamourise, or try to sensationalise. He doesn't need to. He has carefully researched the events, using original sources, and the result is an incredibly readable book, even for a non-militarian like myself. I'd never really thought about what it was like to fight a war from a tank, and this reveals the horror and bravery involved.

The result is a book that I feel will become a classic - it stands firmly alongside works like 'Journey's End' and indeed surpasses many of the more books so beloved of Hollywood with chiselled heroes so unlike real life.

My only problem was that the version I read needed some more serious proof reading - there were typos that a spell check would not catch. But that's easily remedied.

I feel this book will become required reading for anyone remotely interested in the D-Day landings and beyond. Brilliant.

Thank you to NetGalley and Head of Zeus for allowing me access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

D-Day. June 6th, 1944. The trajectory of the Second World War – and with it the course of modern history – is changed for ever. For three young former schoolmates from South Wales, their war is only just beginning.

I found this book good in places but there was far too much detail for me. Call signs back and forth just slowed the tempo of the story. Several back stories proved to be unwarranted and pointless. It started well enough but as the story progressed I found it slow and difficult to keep going.

This is a book that will get right to your heart. A book of war, boys going to war, friendships and bonds made and how the war affected everyone.
This is a book that puts you there, with these three friends, dealing with war, grief, loss, fighting and so much more. You can feel all the emotions, all the sadness and all the friendship as it radiates from the pages of this book.

Such a well written book that can be read by anyone as although it is about war it is also about friendship. A fantastic read that will stay with me for some time to come.

Thank you NetGalley and Head of Zeus | Head of Zeus -- an Aries Book for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

Thank you for providing me with an ARC copy of this book. I really enjoyed this book, especially the vividness of the description. Really well written and really effectively captures the horror of war.

While I love Adrian Goldsworthy's non-fiction, his fiction is hit or miss for me. And this is a definite miss. The prose is stilted, with lots of short sentences, overfilled with technical or military detail, while the dialogue is unconvincing, the attempt at camaraderie falling short at every turn. I couldn't connect to or care about any of the characters and I've tried three times to continue, with no success. Sorry to say this is a DNF.

Rating of 4.75.

Prepare to dive headfirst into the deadliest of struggles as acclaimed historical fiction author Adrian Goldsworthy provides a captivating look at the Normandy invasions with his epic novel, Hill 112.

June 6th, 1944. After years of enduring the Nazi onslaught, the Allies are finally ready to begin their campaign to invade occupied France. But to liberate France and free all of Europe, the Allies first must make a perilous landing and brave the full force of the German army waiting for them. The destination for their fateful landing: Normandy!

As the Allies begin their invasion, three young soldiers, former classmates from south Wales, are amongst the troops landing in Normandy. The charismatic James must put his previous experience as cricket captain into practice by leading a troop of Sherman tanks into fray. The athletic Mark is forced to prove himself as the young officer in charge of a platoon of infantrymen, while Bill, the group’s resident firebrand, finds himself in the middle of the fighting as he serves as a private soldier. However, none of these young men are truly prepared for the carnage to come.

The battle-hardened German army is determined to push the Allies back into the sea, and soon both sides find themselves caught up in a brutal battle for survival. Into the middle of this, James, Mark and Bill find their courage and luck tested like never before as they finally experience the horrors of war and the seemingly unbeatable Germans. Their fates, and that of the entire Allied war effort, will be decided in one of the most brutal fights of the Normandy campaign, the battle for Hill 112.

Goldsworthy brings together one of his heaviest and moving novels yet with the incredible Hill 112. A gritty and realistic war story that seeks to capture the experiences of young soldiers during Normandy, Hill 112 was a fantastic and moving novel that drags readers right into the heart of the fighting.

To see the full review, click on the link below:
https://unseenlibrary.com/2024/06/30/hill-112-by-adrian-goldsworthy/

For other exciting reviews and content, check out my blog at:
https://unseenlibrary.com/

I would firstly like to Thank NetGalley and the publisher Head of Zeus for a copy of this book to read and review. This is the story of the preparations, landings and the first Thirty Days of the Normandy Campaign as seen through the eyes of three school friends from South Wales who participate in the D-Day landings.
We accompany them through training , landing in Normandy there push inland until they reach Hill 112. This is not the boys own telling of this moment in history it feels like the author was there to witness this horrendous battle.
So well written and researched this is a must read for lovers of realistic fiction based on real events.
Another triumph for Adrian Goldsworthy.

The author undoubtedly gave himself a real challenge in setting out to give the reader a sense of the experiences of infantry and tank crews in the fierce - and regrettably little known - fighting in the weeks after D Day as the Allied armies struggled to break out of the D Day lodgements. However, the device used by the author - following the experiences of three former school friends who find themselves in different roles during this phase of the fighting - is very effective, since it gives the reader different perspectives of the actions in which they found themselves. Adrian Goldsworthy is to be congratulated for steering a path that takes the reader to the grimmest of settings without ever making the reader feel that the descriptions of the violence inflicted on the fighting men of both armies was gratuitous. The phrase ‘ordinary people doing extraordinary things’ has become rather hackneyed, but there is little doubt that this description is only too accurate when applied to the citizen armies of the Allies in the Battle of Normandy. This book will be of interest to anyone with an interest in World War Two, and particularly those who want to place the D Day landings within a more comprehensive understanding of how the long awaited major campaign to confront German forces in the heart of Western Europe unfolded. Strongly recommended.

This is my first read by the author, Adrian Goldsworthy. It is good read, but I'd say its only a good read if WWII fiction is your choice of genre. Luckily, im a bit of a war geek.

The vivid descriptions of the battlefield made me feel as though I was there. Immersed in the action. Fighting the enemy. Dodging the bullets and artillery. Painting in words both the harsh reality of war and the camaraderie amonst the men. Terrific storytelling made for an entertaining read; but I felt some elements were not needed and didn't really serve a purpose to the story. I'd say there are better works in this particular genre but it is good.

The character building was excellent and by the middle of the book I felt as though I knew them. Like they were my comrades.

Overall, good bur not excellent. I'd happily give this a 4 star rating.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Firstly thank you for the advanced copy of this book however I have not finished this book . I have read a quarter of it and it is not for me . I have read a WW1 book already this year and thought this may be similar however I was finding it hard to get into the story and the characters.

Thank you Netgalley, Adrian Goldsworthy & Head of Zeus for allowing me to read this book early for an honest review.

This is my first military/war book. I requested this book due to the mention of the Welsh men involved (I live in Wales). Having served in the military and loving a healthy dose of TV & Film war stories, I settled in for the ride.

This book is about Normandy but not the beach landings. It’s angle is on the town, village and surrounding countryside, the tank battles mostly. The cat and mouse games of the “Hun” and the Brits, constantly pushing to gain a little more ground and sometimes losing it.

The events are depicted brilliantly, it highlights the struggle, the frustration and the comradery of the troops as well as the death, maiming and loss they all suffered over sometimes tiny gains. The research for the book must have been long and deep. The descriptions pointing out tiny details do add to flavour and offer insights into how things worked, smelled, sounded etc.

Having now read the book, I do have some thoughts.

Hill 112 was a massive battle resulting in large losses. It unfortunately does not arrive until we are 65% in the book. Prior to 112 we read about a substantial amount of tank skirmishes. Most of the skirmishes happen in fields which all tend to involve wheat, hedges and trees with lots of smoke from burning vehicles or from smoke grenades to hide movement and then big guns that go bang. Sometimes hatches would be open and sometimes they would be closed, this almost becoming the defining difference between fights.

We do get A LOT of back stories and memories involving a lot of the characters. While mostly welcomed, there’s too many times where a memory will pop up in the weirdest of places such as mid firefight or while there’s a moment of tension as troops silently wait to spot the enemy, resulting in complete loss of any tension that was gained. People come and go often and so the endless memories and stories about them become confusing and tiring.

The result of endless mentions of trees, hedges, wheat, gun sounds and smoke as well as back stories does make the book incredibly long and slow and by the time we had reached 112, I was numb to everything as all of the battles sounded the same. 112 ended up sounding like all of the others which is a shame and I found myself wondering how much longer I had left to read to complete the book.
It would have been perfect if we had started almost at 112, I would not be fatigued by all of the same sounding tank battles and would have arrived fresh and ready to soak it all up.

This was an unedited version of the book and so likely much will change before release. I will certainly check out the Authors other books. The writing was great, just way too long with too many details which ground everything to a snails pace.

It’s 1944 and three old school friends from Wales have been put into Normandy, in bloodiest campaign of the Second World War.
All three have different roles, but all are involved in the most desperate battle to stay alive.
The aim is to take Hill 112 and the stakes couldn’t be higher.
Through fear, hunger, savage fighting and laughter. This will become one of the most epic and important battles of the whole war.
The question is will they survive and if they do will they ever be the same people as before.
I have to say this is probably the best WW2 book I ever read.
I was so emotionally invested from the very start, this is an incredible piece of literature and I’m not sure you will read a more sincere book than this.
Adrian Goldsworthy is a fine writer and I’m not sure he’s written a better book than this, and that’s saying something with his incredible catalogue of work.
A true masterpiece.

D-Day - 6 June 1944 - was the largest amphibious invasion in the history of warfare. The statistics of D-Day, codenamed Operation Overlord, are staggering. The Allies used over 5,000 ships and landing craft to land more than 150,000 troops on five beaches in Normandy. The landings marked the start of a long and costly campaign in north west Europe, which ultimately convinced the German high command that defeat was inevitable.

One can only imagine the horror that awaited the allied forces, with some soldiers shot exiting landing craft. Others were drowned in the waters of the Bay of the Seine, weighted down by their equipment. On the beach, the soldiers crossed open sand with ridges and water filled troughs, exposed to gunfire. They also had to maneuver around man-made seawalls covered in razor wire.
After years of planning, it was D-Day - the allied invasion had begun.

In the three months after the landings, the Allies who had survived were tasked with launching a series of additional offensives to try and advance further inland. Not all of these ops were successful as they faced strong and determined German resistance.

This then is the backdrop for our fictional story of three protagonists - former school mates from South Wales - one in an armoured regiment and two in an infantry battalion.

James was the school cricket captain. Now, a few short years later, he is in charge of a troop of Sherman tanks.

Mark, just nineteen, must lead a platoon of infantrymen into battle.

And Bill, always something of a loner, sees the heart of the fighting as a private soldier.

Not much more than boys really, but will these lads survive to manhood? Sadly, one thing’s for certain, in the normally beautiful and peaceful landscape of Normandy, they face the most unimaginable horrors as combatants of one of the bloodiest and most brutal parts of the Normandy campaign, sometimes for very small territorial gains. Every field, every ravaged wood and orchard, every little house of every little village had to be fought for, then fought for again as the inevitable counter attacks came in.

Though fictional, ‘Hill 112’ is based on real events and records, and reminiscences of those who were there, and is published to coincide with the 80th anniversary of D-Day.

It gives an accurate, albeit terrifying insight, into how it really felt to be part of that campaign, gets right inside hearts and minds, and the effect that it had, both physically and mentally on those involved. Despite the horrors, the banter and camaraderie are evident and provide something of a release from all the madness and mayhem, albeit momentarily, for our protagonists. Unsurprisingly, there were times when no one was in the mood for talking at all, their minds quietly trying to process the horrors that they were experiencing.
A stupendous read, that follows three characters, placed at the heart of one of the biggest battles in history. Simply Superb!

My Thoughts /

First and foremost, a huge THANK YOU to NetGalley, Publisher: Head of Zeus, and author Adrian Goldsworthy, for providing me with a copy of this publication, which allows me to provide you with an unbiased review. Publication date is currently set for January 14, 2025.

Outlier Review Incoming

I started reading this book on April 24 and finished it on May 10 - 17 days later. If this was a library book, I would have returned it as a DNF. But as a courtesy to the author, I needed to see this one out to the (bitter) end.

I'm sitting here at my computer with a huge case of procrastination. I've washed the clothes, cleaned the house, been grocery shopping, checked work emails, and I'm still no closer to wanting to write this review. I've got 'First Dates, UK' on the television in the background and it's dawned on me that I can see a similarity….when the matched couple decide not to see each other again, then the two little doves fly away separately….or worse - one gets an arrow to the heart. That's me with this book. I thought I'd love it. But at the end, all I want to do is desperately fly away.

The title of this book captivated me from the get-go. I asked a friend of mine, "Don't think about it - just tell me what is the first thing that pops into your mind when I say, 'the Battle of Normandy'?" And she said "beaches". And, naively, that was me too. So, here's a quick history lesson. Here are 8 'need to know' things about D-Day and the Battle of Normandy:

🔹The 'D' in D-Day stands simply for 'day' and the term was used to describe the first day of any large military operation.
🔹Ground troops landed across five assault beaches - Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword.
🔹D-Day required detailed planning and was an international effort.
🔹This was the largest naval, air and land operation in history.
🔹German defences in Normandy varied in effectiveness.
🔹There is more to Normandy than just D-Day:-
🔹The importance of D-Day often overshadows the overall significance of the entire Normandy campaign. Establishing a bridgehead was critical, but it was just the first step. In the three months after D-Day, the Allies launched a series of additional offensives to try and advance further inland. These operations varied in success and the Allies faced strong and determined German resistance.
🔹The bocage - a peculiarity of the Normandy landscape characterised by sunken lanes bordered by high, thick hedgerows - was difficult to penetrate and placed the advantage with the German defenders. Yet the bloody and protracted Battle of Normandy was a decisive victory for the Allies and paved the way for the liberation of much of north-west Europe.

Back to the book. The author's writing style didn't work for me. It was extremely dense and very slow moving. As a result, I became disconnected from the story and had a hard time keeping myself interested.

Bookish Mixed Bags:

🙄 Part of the book title: - "Hill 112" - we didn't even reach the 'hill' until the 64% mark!

🙄 The sentence structure was unnecessarily verbose. For example: "So many animals were dead, and they had to clear a dozen or more dead cows to prepare their own camp. Dead cattle, dead horses, dead sheep, dead pigs were everywhere. There were probably dead people as well…"

🙄 The writing is repetitive. You now know from your history lesson above that the 'Battle of Normandy' was not ONLY fought on the beaches, but also in 'fields'. This was known as 'Hedgerow Fighting' - German forces used the hedgerows defensively, creating deadly killing fields which Allied troops had to cross. This difficult terrain forced Allied troops to reevaluate tactics and come up with creative solutions for clearing the Bocage of German forces. This difficult situation slowed down progress in Normandy for the invading armies. Unfortunately for this reader, the author exhausted my tolerance for the word 'field' and 'hedge'; by describing every, single, field and hedge in Normandy.

🙄 This then leads on to my next mixed bag. It's way too long. Tighter editing is required before final publishing next year, otherwise, it's going to be a prolonged and tedious account of British tanks moving from field to field. Slim it down and deal with the repetition.

Bookish Yays:

🤩 The theme was interesting, though the execution was clumsy, the author did well to provide the basis of an interesting story.

🤩 The author has obviously done his research. The proper terminology of military equipment, rank structure, and tactical and strategic contact was appreciated.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

The preparations and then the first 30 days following D Day as seen through the eyes of three school friends. Now fighting in both infantry and a tank crew and of different ranks this story tells of the struggles, the suffering and the horror of warfare as the Allied forces attempt to first land on the Normandy beaches and then start to fight their way inland.
An extremely good read.
My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for an unbiased and honest review.

I can definitely see this book being read in a college setting. Mr. Goldsworthy clearly knowns his facts about the era and it's easy to get immersed in the time period because of that. I think this is also evident in the way the characters speak. The "chapters" are also broken up by the time and setting which I think is very cleaver. I think that will help readers understand exactly where they are in the story.

Hill 112 (A novel of 1944) is a stunning tale of ordinary young men doing extraordinary things in such circumstances and under such stress scarcely imaginable to those who weren’t there. The narrative thread of the days before and the weeks after the D-Day Landings in Normandy, France on 6 June 1944 is linked by the experiences of three former school friends from South Wales, one in an armoured regiment and two in an infantry battalion, as they faced the horrors of war as the Allies and the Germans fought savagely over small territorial gains in the Normandy countryside. The boredom of waiting to embark for France; the exhilaration of going into battle for the first time; the terrible reality of “kill or be killed”; the pressure and stress of what was literally life or death decision making; the unknowable horror of discovering what bombs and bullets do to a human body; the physical and mental fatigue of repeatedly fighting to stay alive for day after day and week after week; the humour and banter which survived the darkest of human experiences - all are captured vividly and eloquently in this outstanding book. As a bonus, there is an excellent “Historical Note” at the end of the book which provides a clear and concise explanation of the tactical and strategic context in which the Battle for Normandy was fought.

I have no hesitation in giving this highly recommended book a 5 star rating.

Great read of the battle in Normandy in the days after the Normandy landings.
seen through the eyes of three school friends it follows the action to take Hill 112 one of the minor hills across the battlefront as each side in turns assaults retreats and then re-takes it again. Reminded me of the book 'Warrior for the Working day' that I read many years ago by Peter Elstob which followed a tank crew from D Day to the end of the way.
This book follows a Tank crew and Two infantry sections during the first 30 or so days from D Day.
Brings home the sheer stress ordinary men who did extraordinary things for hours on end under extreme stress.

The author made this book a joy. The book is so well written that it really did feel I could have been there. The tone is gentle and it is very much as if I was having my hand held and walked through the sussex coast, the Normandy fields and ultimately hill 112. The key players are well rounded and the every day items that we see through their eyes make the story all the more powerful, be it the vomit flecks on trousers, the churned up earth or the charred and violated shells of men left behind. The camaraderie is shown in all its power and the ending is both beautiful shown through delicate embroidery and heart wrenching with the gore of a shell explosion. An absolute must read.