.
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by Jakob Totrup Kjaersgaard.
Hardback (7.0×9.9 inches). 247 pages. 2025 reprint of 2019 book.
Subtitle: Danish Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen in the Invasion of Normandy 1944
About 1,000 Danes served with the Allies on D-Day (p192), of which 800 were sailors (p99). Some Danes were pilots in the British RAF and the USAAF.
During the D-Day invasion, four of the 31 Danish ships were sunk, with 20 sailors losing their lives (p191). Beach sector by beach sector, this overview spotlights the wartime efforts of Danish individuals, primarily on June 6, 1944, but also in the Battle of the Atlantic and in the air and ground through the end of WWII. All the mini-bios and first-person accounts are of men except one: a nurse named Elsie Hansen.
Of interest was that one Danish ship, the Alf, carried part of the $450 million in “invasion dollars” — newly issued French francs to supersede existing francs (p167). I never thought about planning to stabilize the currency after the invasion, but someone did.
During the war, 128 of 245 Danish ships were sunk and about 2,300 of 13,000 sailors killed in action (p193).
One factoid: German E-boat S204 surrendered to the British in Felixstow on May 13, 1945 (p202) — a week after hostilities ended. That’s an E-boat, not a U-boat. Where were they and what were they doing for a week? The book doesn’t say.
I was unaware of a twist: Denmark’s government continued after the 1940 German invasion, leading the Allies to consider it not in the Allied camp. It wasn’t until 1943 that the Danish government was replaced by a German occupation government and quite a bit of politicking was needed to formally declare it an Allied country.
The book had one non-fatal typo: the superscript used for footnote 80 (p172) was in full-size text.
The book contains 206 black and white photos, four black and white illustrations, and four black and white maps.
I suspect this may be an English translation and it generally reads fine. Certainly, the prose gets the information across. It’s a narrow focus book but well done on that focus.
Enjoyed it.
— Reviewed by Russ Lockwood
