The Defeat of Germany

In January 1944, the headquarters of the Supreme Commander Allied Expeditionary Force was set up in London. Although over 500 correspondents, photographers and broadcasters had been accredited by the Public Relations Division to cover the invasion of France, SHAEF also decided to issue its own daily communiqués, charting the progress of the battle and over the following months nearly 400 were released. Alongside the measured text of the official communiqués hundreds of photographs — many complete with censor deletions — taken by war photographers in France, Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg and Germany, are reproduced alongside ‘then and now’ comparison photos taken by After the Battle. Illustrating the battles by the western Allies to liberate western Europe, we follow the fighting day by day, beginning from D-Day in Normandy until the final defeat of Nazi Germany in Berlin.