HARRISON, Gordon A.
HARRISON, Gordon A. Cross-Channel Attack. Washington, D.C.: Office of the Chief of Military History, Department of the Army, 1951. First edition.
This is the U.S. Army’s official account of the cross-Channel invasion, from the strategic and logistical planning of Overlord to the assault of 6 June 1944 and First U.S. Army operations in Normandy to 1 July. Harrison, a Harvard-trained historian and wartime Army historical officer, produced one of the foundational “Green Books” in the official United States Army in World War II series.
Large octavo, publisher’s green cloth gilt, xvii, 519 pp., illustrations, charts, index, and folding colour maps. With a typed presentation letter dated 16 November 1951 from Major General Orlando Ward, Chief of Military History, U.S. Army, to “Marshal of the Royal Air Force the Viscount Portal of Hungerford,” presenting the forthcoming official history and noting that it records the Allied invasion of Normandy “in which you played a prominent role.” From Lord Portal’s private collection.
The accompanying letter gives the copy exceptional importance. Orlando Ward was no mere administrator: a Major General, former commander of the 1st Armored Division, and Chief of Military History, he was the senior U.S. Army officer responsible for presenting the Army’s official historical record. His recipient, Lord Portal, was Britain’s wartime Chief of the Air Staff and Marshal of the Royal Air Force, one of the senior architects of Allied air strategy.
The association is direct and highly significant: America’s official military history of Normandy, sent before publication by the U.S. Army’s Chief of Military History to the British air chief whose command helped secure the air supremacy on which D-Day depended. Cloth rubbed and marked, spine label worn, contents clean, all maps present.
