![]() ![]() The author briefly surveys French geography, history, infrastructure, and the national sentiment of the time. It is this experience that Bourque seeks to describe and place in its context, both enriching and expanding the Operation Overlord/Neptune narrative while reminding the reader of the true cost of war.Ĭhapter 2 sets the stage for the Allied campaign against France. The third and most elusive story derives from the experience of the men and women who found themselves living in the shadow of the Allied bombardment. The second prevalent perspective is that of the aircrews and operators themselves. The first of these, that of the American and British leaders directing the course of the war, has for decades occupied a prominent place in the academic literature of World War II. In the first chapter, Bourque acknowledges three different perspectives from which to view the Allied bombing campaign over France. ![]() However, as Bourque notes, this book is a survey, and as such, it is only able to alight briefly on various regions and bombing targets. Beyond the Beach thus begins to fill in the details of the French civilian experience. With his interest piqued, the author was surprised to find very little historiographical mention of the heavy toll that the Allied bombing raids took on the French civilian population-the sheer scale of the destruction and loss of life inflicted by the “good guys” (p. There, he came across a marble plaque at the Metz train station memorializing hundreds of civilians killed in Allied air attacks. ![]() The inspiration for this work struck author and retired Army officer Stephen Alan Bourque during his travels in France. Naval Institute Press, 2018, 376 pp.īeyond the Beach: The Allied War Against France is a historical monograph that focuses on the Allied bombing campaigns carried out against German-occupied France with a particular emphasis on the months leading up to Operation Neptune in June 1944. Beyond the Beach: The Allied War Against France by Stephen Alan Bourque. ![]()
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