D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of WW II

Excellent telling of this momentous day in world history. The individual stories and quotes really bring the reader onto the landing crafts and beaches, and inclusion of enemy voices makes this a well rounded experience.

This was a huge project to cover for the author. Action on five beaches, multiple units within each sector, many highlights and challenges and covering the movement inland from the beaches. All of this was accomplished in an organized and readable manner.From what I gather, the book was written in 1994, so there were quite a few participants around to gain oral glimpses into actions, reactions and challenges that really helped the depth of the history of DDay.This was an amazing work that put the reader on the beaches and into Normandy in a visceral way.Great book.

I believe I read Stephen E. Ambrose's D-Day, June 6, 1944: The Battle for the Normandy Beaches after watching the movie Saving Private Ryan, one of the many movies in which worlds and nations are put to enormous trouble to get Matt Damon out of trouble. (Honestly, think about it: Saving Private Ryan, Interstellar, The Martian. Wouldn't it be cheaper to just get the guy a Navi?) Saving Private Ryan (1998) was based in part on this book (published in 1994). I note that there is a more recent edition D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II, published in 2013. I have not read that.I was recently reminded of D-Day because I'm working my way through William Manchester and Paul Reid's The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965. This, the last volume of their huge biography of Winston Churchill The Last Lion, is largely a history of the Second World War from the English point of view. Last night I reached 80% in that HUGE last volume and arrived at D-Day.I note that most of the less positive reviews of D-Day make the same complaint: that it is focused on US soldiers, and particularly on the landing at Omaha Beach, one of the two where American troops came ashore. Fair enough -- it is that. (And remember, I haven't read the 2013 edition, so I don't know if Ambrose did anything about this.) Honestly, this strikes me more as a complaint about the title than about the book itself. If Ambrose had called it D-Day, June 6, 1944: The Battle on Ohama Beach, there would be no reasonable basis for complaint. It was not unreasonable to write a history focused on Omaha Beach. Even Manchester and Reid (who are by no means inclined to exaggerate the US role -- quite the opposite) write"The news from the British and Canadian beaches was good, as it was from the westernmost American beach, Utah, where fewer than 200 men of 21,000 were killed going ashore. Tanks had raced across the causeways and established contact with the airborne units. But on Omaha it was a bloody and close-fought affair."It was on Omaha that Rommel and Rundstedt concentrated their defense, and the US troops there took the brunt.Thus, if you're thinking of reading D-Day, go into with eyes open: it's mostly about the US soldiers who went ashore at Omaha Beach.The main lesson I remember now, a quarter century after I first read the book, was that Ambrose attributes US success mainly to their flexible command architecture. The invasion did not go according to plan: the preparatory bombardment that was supposed to obliterate the defense failed almost completely. Because American soldiers are encouraged to take initiative, they had the freedom to innovate workarounds. Hitler, by contrast, had personally taken command of his forces. He was not on the spot and could not direct forces to where they were needed. It is not that US soldiers were smarter or braver than Germans -- four years of war had shown that the German soldiers were pretty damn good, and Rommel, of course, had been one of their best.Ambrose's D-Day is an excellent history of the US landing on Omaha Beach. If you understand that's what you're buying, you'll get your money's worth.

These books are so real you feel ur there! TY

Very well done, easy to read, mainly first hand accounts of D-Day activities. Nice to hear from common soldiers on their experiences

My son got a copy at a used book store. He is a MAJOR histor/WWII buff!) He has many history books but THIS one…. He has bought 4-5 copies so far to give to his awesome history professor and to a couple of fellow “groupie” classmates because the professor is so awesome and teaches a special topic class every semester which several adult students always take.

The book offers a thorough and gripping account of D-Day and the planning and preparation that went into it. Most of the book consists of a great many first-person accounts by the actual participants, mostly allied personnel but some Germans too. Complementing these are the author’s analyses of what went right and wrong for the Allies (mostly right) and for the Germans (mostly wrong). I thought I knew a lot about D-Day, but I learned a lot more from this book. Ambrose is an excellent writer, and this one is a page-turner.

Stephen Ambrose uses numerous, numerous, numerous first hand interviews and accounts of the events leading up to D-Day and on D-Day itself to convey what it was truly like to be there on that fateful June 6th day in 1944. Ambrose does an admirable job at putting the reader in the shoes of those who were there, giving various examples of how difficult and bloody a day it was for Allies and Germans alike, and shows how tough the soldiers were at getting their tasks done despite a horrific setting of battle.This book is not a definitive history of D-Day, as Ambrose does not discuss the various plans and strategies, tactics, etc, that went into each beach and D-Day itself totally in depth. He does a fairly good job of broadly discussing these, but not in depth as some have went on the topic of D-Day. As stated earlier, he tends to focus more on first hand accounts of soldiers who were there, which can honestly get old after the first few dozen, as you find yourself asking yourself, "so this guy did this" and then 40 pages later "is this the same guy as earlier, I'm not sure because Ambrose has talked about 30 other guys since then" and this puts one like myself, who is a history major, and loves WWII, as sometimes confused. If it confuses me as far as him jumping around excessively, it will likely confuse others, so just a fair warning.That said, good book, not great like Band of Brothers in my humble opinion, but a solid, good read about D-Day. I would recommend Ryan's "The Longest Day" or Antony Beevor's "D-Day" over Ambrose's though, both mix first hand accounts in with the overall strategy of the day, etc. They are much less confusing and smoother reads...but if you enjoy WWII history, pick up Ambrose's as well, its a fairly good read. I read Citizen Soldiers as well, and its comparable to this book, solid, good book, but not clear at times on the overall history and whats going on strategy wise, but Ambrose never meant for them to be that so I digress.

Livro é incrível, qualidade, excelente. Chegou antes do prazo e muito bem embalado. Veio perfeitamente como queria, capa dura e em inglês.O livro em si, excelente, as histórias escritas e a narrativa é maravilhosa. Recomendo muito.

Excellent story telling. Truly enjoyed it.

Real insight to the bravery of all concerned in the invasion. Also looks at the plight of the German soldier when faced with such an onslaught.

This book was great,i loved the way the author put it and i will read more books from this author

comme d'habitude un livre documenté et vivant;Stephen E. Ambrose est un formidable historien et un écrivain qui se lit avec plaisir