Advocating OVERLORD: The D-Day Strategy and the Atomic Bomb

“When thinking about the Second World War, Operation OVERLORD and the Manhattan Project are definitely two major subjects that have received significant attention over the years. However, rarely have these two highly discussed events been handled in a parallel manner. Philip Padgett has written an intriguing history that provides keen insights into the special relationship between the United States and Great Britain as they worked toward the planned Allied invasion of Europe, as well as engineering and construction of the atomic bombs. Simply in Advocating OVERLORD: The Atomic Bomb and the D-Day Strategy Decision, Padgett has written an insightful history of how these two significant events influenced one another within the context of the Second World War, as well as the special relationship between the United States and Great Britain.”

“Padgett has provided us with an excellent, extremely insightful study of the pivotal negotiations during 1943 that determined whether and how the fledgling Anglo-American alliance would solidify to make a significant contribution to the defeat of Nazi Germany and go on to provide the basis for post-war western security.”

“By any measure, the journey during World War II of the United States and the United Kingdom, thrown together by malign forces and, while often diverted by clashing personalities and differing national priorities, gradually accepting the necessity of common action to launch the Allied invasion of northwest Europe, has been exhaustively explored over the past seven decades. However, Philip Padgett has provided a novel roadmap for tracing this familiar story. His Advocating Overlord: The D-Day Strategy and the Atomic Bomb is evocatively written, grounded in authoritative research in British and U.S. sources, and offers an intriguing thesis regarding the nexus of issues that led to OVERLORD.”

“Very well-written and very well-researched in British and American archival and manuscript materials as well as published works, Philip Padgett’s Advocating Overlord: The D-Day Strategy and the Atomic Bomb provides a detailed analysis of the Anglo-American disagreements over both European strategy and atomic sharing during World War II. In doing so it offers a provocative, fascinating reinterpretation of the relationship between the two disputes.”

“In Advocating Overlord, Philip Padgett not only offers a carefully-argued and nuanced account of D-Day and all that went with it, but shows how the apparently unconnected Anglo-American wartime effort to build an atomic bomb informed and sometimes complicated Overlord planning at the highest level. This connectivity is rarely discussed but in Advocating Overlord it becomes the driver of a fascinating account of Anglo-American military planning, politics and diplomacy.”

“From the very first sentence, this is a gripping tale that illuminates the critical transition from World War II into the Atomic Age. Exhaustively documented, this book is a treasure for the amateur and professional historian alike.”

“A verbal Bayeux Tapestry, Philip Padgett’s panorama is a mesmerizing tale of how in 1943 Franklin Roosevelt rebuffed Winston Churchill’s passion for an exclusively Mediterranean campaign and authorized instead the Anglo-American amphibious assault on Normandy of June 6, 1944, meanwhile limiting British participation in development of the atomic bomb.”

“Philip Padgett’s important book sheds new light on Allied planning for OVERLORD, a process that involved not just hard bargaining, but a lot of serious thinking. Even those well versed in the history of the war will find much to ponder here, including the entanglement of OVERLORD with the American effort to exclude the British from participation in the building of the atomic bomb, and the final transformation of America’s international role, away from “hemispheric defense,” and toward enduring global engagement.”