Peter Tsouras’ Disaster at D-Day is a recent library sale pick up for me. I looked at his Rising Sun Victorious here at the Castalia House blog. This book is sub-titled “The Germans Defeat the Allies, June 1944.”

Tsouras has written or edited anthologies on alternate histories including Stalingrad, Napoleon, WW1, the Cold War, Third Reich Victorious, Dixie Victorious, Gettysburg, Assassinations, Battle of the Bulge. These all appear to be in print also.

Disaster at D-Day is from 1994, hardback, 238 pages, Greenhill Press.

The deviation from our time line has Rommel in Normandy inspecting troops. Another panzer division is present. The landings at Omaha Beach fail with a strong German counterattack. The American 1^st Infantry and 29^th Infantry Divisions lose about 2/3 of their strength in killed, wounded, and captured.

Gen. Gerd von Rundstedt is able to prevail on Hitler to get all available forces in the west moved to Normandy immediately. The British and Canadian landings run into problems with vigorous counterattacks. The British Army takes close to 200,000 casualties in a month’s time.

Tsouras has lots of day by day, blow by blow action as paratrooper units are eliminated, Gen. Montgomery’s attacks come to disaster.

The book endes with Hitler and top Nazis blown up in a French Chateau in France as they celebrate their victory over the Allies. A German military junta takes control and negotiates an armistace. There is mention of Erwin Rommel as German Premier in 1960.

I blew through this book pretty quick. I do have problems. The U.S. and British Armies of 1944 were not the same armies in 1942. The German Army could not move in the day due to overwhelming Allied air superiority. John Keegan said that the German Army bled out in the hedgerow fighting. They did not have the reserves nor equipment to slug it out in a prolonged meat-grinder.

Another issue I have is would Roosevelt and Churchill have accepted an armistace with a German military junta? They had proclaimed the fight until unconditional surrender. Would the German generals give up gains in the East. The Prussian officers were more enthusiastic for a war with Poland than Hitler was in the 1930s.

I am still waiting for an alternative history where the Japanese atacks on Pearl Harbor, Philippines, and Malaya all go wrong from the start. That would have had an a profound impact on our timeline with Asian nationalistm set back decades.