In the spring and early summer of 1944 a huge force, a million and a half strong, spread across Southern England, awaiting the greatest adventure in military history. The invasion of Occupied Europe. This army, mainly Americans, British and Canadians, most of whom had no experience of battle, was to be transported across the English Channel. No one knew how. This is the story of the American “occupation” of a wide district of South Devon to permit realistic war games and encompasses all manner of characters, from Generals Eisenhower and Montgomery to the village simpleton. The Magic Army is regarded as an impressively moving, often very funny story, which recreates the astonishing operation which preceded the Allied landing in France.