D-Day, June 6, 1944 by Stephen E. Ambrose

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.

This was my first ever experience reading a book by Stephen Ambrose and it will not be the last. My first experience with him was when I got the chance to read a little bit of his book Citizen Soldiers. Finding out that I had this one in my collection, I decided to give it a try, and I was pleasantly surprised by how nicely written it was. I understood the gravity of the situation now far more than when I went into reading this novel. This was one that really gave me a full picture of the D-Day landings and just how much could have gone wrong, how much did go wrong, and how much we prevailed in spite of the problems occurring that day. It is well written, and it should be read by those looking for a more complete look at this fateful day.

If this book has any problems it is that it begins with the planning phase of the invasion. This means that it does tend to start off rather slowly than with any kind of action packed scenes, but that is quickly remedied as the book goes on. The rest of the text is filled with the exploits and accounts of fighters on both sides. This makes it fast paced and interesting to read. Yet, this also represents some small problems in that the text can be repetitive at times. There are only so many times I can read about people going onto a beach under fire until it becomes a tad monotonous. Still, I think this was just a personal problem for me, and not anything really against the book.

Then there is the account of Ambrose's chest thumping patriotism. While it is surely there in some sections, it isn't as overbearing as I thought it would be. You can tell that he published Band of Brothers two years before, because some of the gushing on those troops bleeds through here. For the most part, that element of his writing was subdued with accounts of the regular American GI, and average Kruat soldier.

Regardless of my personal problems with this book, I still recommend this text to anyone looking for a more thorough view of D-Day than any documentary can provide. I am glad that I own this, and I will be keeping this to use in my teaching classes. I give this book a four out of five.