We Were There at the Normandy Invasion

We Were There

by Clayton Knight, Ralph Royce (Contributor)

Hardcover without a dust jacket. The binding is loose, but it is still intact.

Genres: History, World War II

183 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1968

About the author

Clayton Knight OBE was an American aviator during World War I. He was also an aviation artist and illustrator, and is known for being one of the founders of the Clayton Knight Committee and the illustrator of the comic strip Ace Drummond.

Knight and his wife were also illustrators of children's books, and often collaborated. He wrote and illustrated a few We Were There books, which were historical novels for children. This particular series was written as a fictional retelling of a historical event, featuring kids as the primary characters. He wrote and illustrated, We Were There...at the Normandy Invasion, We Were There...with the Lafayette Escadrille, and We Were There...at the Battle of Britain, the latter written with his wife. Both Knight and his wife were illustrators for the P.F. Volland Company, most known for publishing children's books. Knight's children's book, The Non-Stop Stowaway: The Story of a Long Distance Flight (1928) was published under the Buzza Company imprint.

Reviews

[Sloane Deterding · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was such a fun gift to receive alongside my gun for graduation!

[Matthew Ewoldt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book for as it gives young readers a good image of what it must have like to be a witness to the liberation of Europe. It is also a wonderfully written adventure story that I, even though an adult, felt like I was right there with Andre.

[Rodney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Using the French boy Andre Gagnon and his family, the author tells the story of the airborne invasion of Normandy by paratroops of the 82nd Airborne Division. I enjoyed reading this book as a child and enjoyed reading it again as an adult.

[Ruthie · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was bad. It had no internal conflict. I didn't like the characters at all, though the history was interesting but other than that I wish I hadn't wasted my time reading it.

[T · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I started, I listened to this book on LibriVox and did not realize that it was part of a series for children. It was interesting, but I did not feel the characters were well developed.

[Janelle]

Dnf. Disappointing. I think I would have enjoyed this book. But although the LibriVox narrator was very good, I couldn’t understand him when he spoke with characters’ German or French accents.

[J.L. Day · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read every single one of these as a child, time and time again; as an adult I have sought them out as treasured mementoes of my childhood. These books, the adventures and places they took me and the history I learned from them; they WERE my childhood!

They can be hard to find, but THANK GOD publishers are beginning to re-publish many editions from the series and believe you me I am buying them in book form AND on my Kindle.

If you have children or nieces and nephews, BY every book in this series and give the gift of adventure, education and appreciation of literature!

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published in 1956, this book, along with many others, belonged to my brother-in-law as a young person. In cleaning out our book supply this was a pile to get rid of, but since I didn't know anything about this subject, decided to read it. So glad I did, and we will be keeping the others in this series. Captivating story around this piece of our history

[Becky Filipek · Rating 3 out of 5]

We enjoyed reading this fictionalized account of the Normandy invasion. We are studying WWII in history and this novel fit in well with our study. It was good to get something like a first-hand account of what the war would have been like for the French as the Americans were helping to liberate them from the Germans. This novel was relatively fast paced and full of action.