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A book which we all should read.

On the basis of 1,400 oral histories from the men who were there, bestselling author and World War II historian Stephen E. Ambrose reveals for the first time anywhere that the intricate plan for the invasion of France in June 1944 had to be abandoned before the first shot was fired. The true story of D-Day, as Ambrose relates it, is about the citizen soldiers – junior officers and enlisted men – taking the initiative to act on their own to break through Hitler’s Atlantic Wall when they realised that nothing was as they had been told it would be. D-DAY is the brilliant, no holds barred, telling of the battles of Omaha and Utah beaches. Ambrose relives the epic victory of democracy on the most important day of the twentieth century.

Review: “The climactic battle of WW2” says the secondary title inside. Having read about the titanic battles in the East, which dwarfed anything fought in the West, I initially thought this a bit much. However, the late Prof. Ambrose does have a reason; he believed that, had there been no attempt to invade or had the invasion attempt failed, Hitler and Stalin might have reached an accommodation, as they did just before the war started. Although the tide had turned against them in the East, the Germans were still in possession of substantial Soviet territory, and the reinforcements possible from the West, plus a willingness to give up much of that territory, might have persuaded the cynical Stalin to come to terms. There is naturally no way of knowing how right this is, but if it is, the events of 6 June 1944 are far more important than we ever thought. Prof. Ambrose tells the tale of the biggest amphibious operation ever mounted in fascinating, yet never boring, detail. The sheer scale of the enterprise takes your breath away, as does the enormous risk element. No wonder Eisenhower, having given the order to invade (in a language which George W. Bush more recently emulated), immediately went away and wrote down the speech he’d give if it failed, assuming the entire responsibility himself (which George W. Bush naturally did not emulate). Certainly there were plenty of errors and miscalculations; the Allies made many, the Germans made far more, and they lost as a result. War is hell, as William Tecumseh Sherman once said, and it is a sad commentary on the human race that hell is occasionally unavoidable and that the sacrifice of many fine young men – on both sides – becomes necessary. This was one such occasion, and it paved the way to the end of one of the most monstrous regimes the world has ever known and the relative peace and freedom from major conflict the world now enjoys. The great stories of D-Day – Pegasus Bridge, the Merveille Battery, Omaha Beach and Pointe du Hoc – are all told, along with a good deal more. I’ve noticed the book has been criticised for its American emphasis. It is true that the US contribution does get the lion’s share of the action, but I personally think the harsher criticisms are unjustified. The greatest story of all is the bloody shambles of Omaha Beach and how the young Americans fought their way off it and established a beach head, and it deserves top billing. The British and Canadians had it relatively (and I underline that word) easy. All in all, an excellent book, and well worth reading.

Stephen E. Ambrose, leading World War II historian, was the author of numerous books on history including the Number 1 bestselling BAND OF BROTHERS, D-DAY (on which SAVING PRIVATE RYAN was based) PEGASUS BRIDGE and WILD BLUE. He is founder of the Eisenhower Center and the National D-Day Museum in New Orleans. He died in 2002.