(ISBN 0-312-04148-9)

Steven Zoraster

It is Spring 1942. Germany has defeated Poland, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, The Netherlands, and France and driven the British out of Europe. German and British Empire forces are fighting each other in North Africa. But, and this is a big "but," The Germans did not attack the Soviet Union in June 1941. Instead, they have spent two years preparing for the invasion of Great Britain. They have been gathering tugs, motor vessels, trawlers, lighters, and launches from throughout Europe. They have been mass-producing specially designed landing craft for at least six months. The German code-name for the invasion? S-Day.

The bombing of Britain has continued for two full years. The British aircraft and aircraft engine production factories have been located and destroyed. Only a few squadrons of Spitfires and Hurricanes remain. The German airforce dominates the air over the English Channel, and over southern England, where significant movement of soldiers and military supplies are possible only at night. In the meantime, the Japanese have attacked in the Pacific.

Since December 1941, The United States has been at war with Germany. The American contribution to the defense of England is - so far - limited to 6 divisions and some non-divisional combat units. They are organized into two corps, totaling 85,000 men, and tasked with defending most of the coastline of Kent, in southern England. Their responsibilities stretch 120 miles along the coast, from Portsmouth west to Foreness Point. Six divisions do not have enough soldiers to effectively defend that much coastline. Another American army corps is due to arrive within a week, but the Germans will come first. Luckily, there is one more very important contribution from America, the commander of the AEF, the American Expeditionary Force: Major General Wilson Clay.

S-Day is, essentially, the story of General Clay, and his leadership of the AEF, before and during the German invasion of England. That story is told from the point of view of Clay's aide-de-camp, Lt. Colonel Jack Royce. Royce is an academic type with a Ph.D. in military history. After joining the United States Army in 1939, he had been assigned to West Point as an instructor, until, frantic to actually participate in the war, he talked his way onto General Clay's staff. General Clay picked him partly because they are both interested in military history, but mostly because he recognized that Royce would be good at the ADC job. Everyone on General Clay's staff was picked because they are good at their job. Picking good people is a major part of Clay's job. So is motivating them, and motivating the entire AEF. Another important part of Clay's job is getting along with the British government and the British military.

General Clay is part Eisenhower, part Patton. He graduated first in the West Point class of 1915, "the class the stars fell on." In England in 1942, his Spartan living quarters are filled with paperback novels. I don't know whether Eisenhower actually read his paperback westerns, but for Clay those novels are just props, part of a scene crafted to convince visiting dignitaries and the press, and through them the soldiers of the AEF, that he is completely confident about his responsibilities. According to Royce, "General Clay read in German, French, and English, and he never read anything for pleasure." The General prefers books by Rommel, Frederick the Great, and Marshall de Saxe, and the German Infantry Officer's Handbook.

Like Eisenhower, Clay is a good diplomat. His very personal relationship with Churchill is both fun and believable. His even more personal relationship with Lady Ann Percival, who has already gone through four husbands before reaching the age of 40, is also fun, at least for the reader of S-Day, if not for General Clay or Lt. Colonel Royce. Like Patton (and Churchill), Clay is also a great actor. And like Patton, Clay is fanatic about victory. Fanatic about victory at almost any cost.

The British military, which dominates the Anglo-American Combined Chiefs of Staff, have little confidence in the AEF. They have assigned the Americans to defend the coast of Kent because they expect the Germans to attack along the east coast of England. But, of course, the main German attack on S-Day is against the sector defended by the AEF. The actual story of the four days of fighting covered in S-Day is told mostly through the experiences of civilians and soldiers on both sides, who Royce has interviewed after the war. And through Royce's own experiences following General Clay behind, over, and on the battlefield.

The model for the German invasion is D-Day in reverse. The Germans have a shadow army apparently poised to attack the English east coast. Before the invasion, they spread disinformation through British spies they have caught and "turned." Thousands of faked German radio signals suggesting that the east coast is where the invasion will occur are picked up by British intelligence. German bombing raids are aimed mostly at communications links and cities on the east coast. The invasion itself begins in the night, with the landing of parachute troops and glider born troops. These soldiers face the same sort of problems American and British soldiers did on the night before D-Day: Land in a lake or swamp and you drown. If your glider crashes, you probably die. Those German soldiers landing over the beaches at dawn on S-Day take tremendous casualties, just like the American's did at Omaha beach. And, just like the Americans at Omaha, they manage to overrun the shoreline defenses, and break into the countryside behind.

So, who cares? Why bother to read S-Day, since it's a good guess that the Germans are not going to win? Hell, Royce is alive in 1948 with the time and resources to tell the story, so the good guys must have won. First the book is fun to read. The author obviously had immense fun writing it. Royce and Clay are both compelling characters, and the interchanges between the academician with a taste for battle, and the fighting general who likes to read, are wonderful. (Luckily, they both have a sense of humor.) The descriptions of the AEF weapons and preparations for battle are good. So are the descriptions of the German weapons and preparations, gathered by Royce after the war. The presentation of the very personal experiences of British civilians and soldiers and of the American soldiers before and during the invasion are very good. As are the presentations of the experiences of some of the German soldiers who survived the battle. American tank commanders get seasick racing their tanks around the English countryside. Some American infantry are demoralized by their initial defeats. (But they aren't allowed to stay demoralized, not after General Clay shows up.) German soldiers also get seasick, are shown to be afraid, and even shown to make mistakes.

But there is a more important reason to read the book. Unlike most other alternate history novels about military events, S-Day manages to raise fundamental moral questions. General Clay will go into the history books as a winner, not a loser, because of difficult choices he is willing to make as commander of the AEF. Were they the right choices? Well, one of the corp commanders in the AEF refuses to carry out Clay's most important order near the end of the battle. According to Royce, supposedly writing in 1948, many people think the selection of Clay as commander of the AEF was the worst decision Franklin Roosevelt ever made. Royce does not share that opinion. The Winston Churchill of this book does not share it. I, who have never been in combat, think that Clay's choices were the right ones, despite the horrible costs. I invite you to read the book and decide for yourself.