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Summary: Exciting, Poignant, Graphic Account of Assault in Normandy!
Review: No one has been more prolific or entertaining in his efforts to bring the gritty, unit-level personal experiences of the Allied drive from Normandy into Germany to the public's attention than Stephen Ambrose. In his series of books including "Band Of Brothers", "The Victors", "Citizen Soldiers", and "D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War Two", he has masterfully employed a little-known treasure trove of personal interviews with thousands of Allied soldiers to marshal an absolutely absorbing, captivating, and insightful treatise on the nature of combat as experienced by the men and women in the forefront of action as it transpired all along the front. In this volume he concentrates on the D-Day invasion onto the beachheads along the exposed coast of Normandy on June 6, 1944, in what was the largest and by far the most dangerous sea borne assault since the disastrous Australian failure to establish a beachhead at Gallipoli and the ensuing bloodbath earlier in the century. In a book memorable for its countless personal stories and private adventure in the midst of carnage, chaos, and confusion, of free fire zones where anything that moves dies, Ambrose paints an indelible portrait of the unbelievable madness of war. Following in the famous footsteps of famed author Cornelius Ryan in "The Longest Day", Ambrose uses the amazing and absorbing recollections of the men who fought there to tell the story with poignancy, clarity, and a profound respect for the deeds of so many who fought so valiantly there in service to their countries. This is a story that should be told again and again, so we never forget what it took to take back the beaches, the surrounding countryside, all in preparation for moving on into the interior of France to push the Germans all the way back to Berlin. This was not only the longest day, but also one of the greatest days in history, when hundreds of thousands of Brits, Canadians, Australians, Frenchmen, and Americans strove out of their landing boats to set foot back on Europe, to take back by force of arms the liberty and freedom that had been wrested away from the mainland so cruelly nearly five years before. This, then, is the story of how that crusade to liberate Europe began, of its first shaky steps off the LSTs and boats onto the rocky bloodied shores of France. Mr. Ambrose has become a virtual cottage industry in the World War Two section of your local bookstore, while he has also published works such as his recent best seller on explorers Lewis and Clark. Meanwhile, he has become phenomenally successful because many of his books have captured the public's imagination by being so readable, entertaining, and informative. While popular success doesn't always equate to critical worthiness, in his case it consistently seems to. This is a wonderfully worthwhile, eminently researched, exhaustively documented, and superbly narrated book on the most critical day in the long and painful struggle to finally liberate Europe. Enjoy!
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Summary: A deeper exploration of D-Day.
Review: I really don't want to dimish the importance of Ryan's work in comparing it to Ambrose, but it may seem so in this review. Ambrose's work is far more sophisticated and detailed than Ryan's. Ambrose's rich prose and exhaustive research and interviews with the participants take the reader far deeper into D-Day than ever before. This is the BEST book I have read on D-Day!
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Summary: HOLY COW - What a wonderful book!
Review: If you want an insightful, detailed, and heart-wrenching description of the events leading up and during the Allied invasion on June 6, 1944, this book is IT. This work along with Mr. Ambrose's Citizen Soldiers makes me even more appreciative for the sacrifices made by the men who fought to preserve our freedom. I highly recommend this book!
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Summary: An Embarrasing Flag Waver - Little more...
Review: Its now over 50 years since D-day (not the climatic battle of World War 2) and most of the key personnel are long gone. One might reasonably expect a balanced, informative, even (god forbid!) objective account of the battle by now. Unfortunately, this isn't it. In fact, one wonders how much Professor Ambrose actually knows about the military history of the period. To be sure, there are some gripping, and very upsetting first hand accounts of the debacle at Omaha beach, and how the courage and perserverance of large numbers of "ordinary" American men managed to turn the battle around, at high cost to themseleves. But overall, Ambrose can't control his deep and irrational anti-British, and anti-German predjudice. This would be forgivable in a book published in the early 1950s, but for a supposed expert of the period, writing today, its unforgivable. Historians can be patriotic, and there is much to be patriotic about, but to simply lie by ommision, with the frequency that Ambrose does in this book is outrageous! The cold, hard, disturbing facts are the performance of the German army in Normandy, operating with no air-cover, and hopelessly outnumbered was outstanding. True, the British Army's performance was often disappointing, but facing as it was some of the best German units, hardly surprising. Worst of all, books like this seek to demean and belittle the fact that the Anglo-American alliance of 1941-45 was one of the most sucessful and amicable in the history of the world - D-Day was its ultimate expression, composed of equal numbers of British and American troops, facing the most outstanding field army of the 20th century. Ambrose should be ashamed of himself, and I urge you to read Max Hasting's "Overlord" and Carlo d'Este's "Decision in Normandy" for more balanced, more informative and better written accounts.
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Summary: Narrative History With a Hammer
Review: Stephan Ambrose's "D-Day June 6, 1944: The Climatic Battle of WW II," is a work of immense power. This history of D-Day has to be read with the understanding that it is mostly a history of the U.S.invasion forces and sheds less light on the British and Canadians (Though they are mentioned). Ambrose writes clearly and intellegently, while backing up his story with sound research. The great power of the book is the personal perspective of the particpants from private-on-up that the reader gets (Ambrose is able utilize the methods of Social history with great power). This comes from Ambrose's ability to incorporate the thousands of veteran's oral histories he compiled in the Eisenhower Center. "D-Day" provides a sound explanation for the Allied planning and preparation for the invasion while showing the rational behind Hitler's Atlantic Wall. I found most interesting the analysis of the fragmented German command structure. We learn that Hitler's insistance on personal control of units undermined the Wehrmacht's ability to launch timely counter-attacks against the invasion. The narrative power of the book is incredible. The reader is essentially with the 101st and 82nd airborne as they make their jumps and struggle for survival behind enemy lines. Toward the end of the book, the reader comes face-to-face with the brutal combat on Omaha Beach. Ambrose takes the reader into many of the Higgin's landing craft. We are truly with many of the men who were really there when the ramps came down and all hell broke lose!
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Summary: Great History of the Invasion
Review: If you only read one book about the June 6, 1944 Allied Invasion of Normandy, this should be the one! I enjoyed reading about the action that took place throughout the day and Steven Ambrose tells in a readable way what happened so its hard to put the book down. Unlike some other reviewers, I thought he gave a good account of the British part of the invasion. He describes how the US Navy came to the aid of soldiers on Omaha Beach and came in close and used their 5 inch guns on the German pillboxes when the men were in need of more firepower. This book will make you proud that we had such brave men fighting for freedom at this time, glad we had such smart leaders and make your eyes tear up as you read how they died to keep us free!
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Summary: Fantastic book, but very unobjective.
Review: First off let me say that this book will live on as one of the best accounts of D-Day ever put on paper, along with Six Armies in Normandy (John Keegan) and The Longest Day (Corneilus Ryan). However, what kept it from receiving 5 stars from me and what I think will always hang over this book is Ambroses views and writing style. He is unabashedly the most pro American historian I have ever read. This, I think, hurts him more than helps him. He takes an event that was a total allied effort to crack the Atlantic Wall, and turns it into almost an exclusive American outing. If I did not know better I would think that the British and Canadians played almost no part on that day except for the British Airborne at Pegasus Bridge. While the focus on the Americans is not necessarily a bad thing in itself, it becomes obvious through Ambroses statements that he feels that the British and Commonwealth troops were not really pulling their weight. This view point has got to be one of the most shameful ever take by someone who calls themselves a historian and sounds more like right wing commentary rather than a professor trying to impart history on individuals. And his almost total disregard for the Germans on that day shows that more than a little objectivity has been lost. I am a believer that once a historian loses their objectivity that they begin walking the path of rewriting history or becoming a propagandist. From the above statements you might take it that I did not enjoy this book. This is untrue. Ambrose has a gift, a gift of interviewing. He more than any other historian has the ability to get vets to talk and talk openly about the most horrible/wonderful period in their lives. This comes out in the incredible first person accounts of D-Day, and in my opinion make this book a must have for everyone. Be they a casual reader or a student. For I also believe that it is only through the eyes of a vet can we really ever understand what it was like on that cold June day. My hat is off to Ambrose in the end. He has the gift to put us in that moment of history like we were actually there, but if he would temper that with the ability to look beyond the almost entirely America only perspective we would have a novel that could be regarded as a classic.
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Summary: Guilty Pleasure
Review: I enjoyed this book very much despite the sins of its historiography. Like many readers I was drawn to this book after seeing "Saving Private Ryan". As a trained historian, I quickly noted many of Ambrose's flaws. The book was highly predjudiced (America great, Britain laughable, all others inferior)and--like much military history--it often read like a propaganda piece. Still, I loved reading it and may read it again. Ambrose may not be a world class historian but he is a marvelous story teller and his narrative kept me in thrall. Despite ambrose's biases and omissions, I was deeply impressed by the amount of content and detail he produced. I recommend this book for anyone who is interested in military history or who simply wants a good read. However, I would warn anyone who wants to learn about D-Day, World War II, or military history in general, to read this book carefully. Filter out as much of the nonsense as possible and absorb the gems that Ambrose provides. Cornelius Ryan's "The Longest Day", and any books by John Keegan, or T. N. Dupey would make a marvelous (and more intelligent) supplement to this one. Ah, but I enjoyed this book. Intellectually speaking it truly was a guilty pleasure.
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Summary: Saving Memories of D-day
Review: For those who loved "Saving Private Ryan," this is the book to provide a more complete understanding of June 6, 1944. I never thought any book could top Cornelius Ryan's "The Longest Day" about this subject, but Ambroses's acoount is even more compelling. Ambrose is America's foremost military historian and this is one of his best works. A great read for anyone who wants to truly appreciate the "greatest generation."
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Summary: The Resource for DDay
Review: I have been reading some of the other reviews and I can not believe how anyone can trash this book. Mr. Ambrose interviewed over 1000 veterans for this book. It is full of first hand accounts from the soldiers who were there. These were not just soldiers but these were our fathers, uncles, and grandfathers. Yes Kursk and Stalingrad were bigger and they deserve their own separate books. Mr. Ambrose was not writing about them; he is writing about the most important event on the WESTERN front. If DDay failed who knows what the outcome would have been. How about Soviet dominated France, Belgium, Holland, etc...? This book is amazing in its detail and scope. It should go down as one of the best war histories of all time!
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