1944. The Allies prepare for the largest military operation of World War II: the invasion of Normandy. Two German armies stand ready to hurl them back into the sea. As D-Day approaches, the balance of power in Europe teeters on a knife’s edge.

After undergoing grueling special forces training in preparation for the mission, celebrated RAF pilot Johnnie Shaux arrives in Normandy—not in the sky, but on one of the first landing crafts, dispatched to call in air support for the embattled Allied soldiers as they storm the beaches. Meanwhile, tactical military analyst Eleanor Shaux follows the events from Eisenhower’s headquarters back in England, vividly aware of von Moltke’s dictum: “No plan survives first contact with the enemy.”

As the battered and bruised Allies fight their way toward Germany, Hitler unleashes his new tools of destruction—the V1 “buzzbomb” and the V2 rocket. While Johnnie joins the RAF’s risky efforts to paralyze Hitler’s weapons, the Allies launch the ill-fated airborne Operation Market Garden—against Eleanor’s advice—deep in enemy-held territory.

As 1944 draws to a close, the Nazis engage the Allied armies in a final desperate attempt to push them back in the Battle of the Bulge. And above the battlefield, Johnnie must contend with a game-changing, deadly threat: the world’s first operational jet fighter.