Rating: 
Summary: good oral history, weak analysis
Review: Ambrose writes very well and provides us with an interesting, though skewed history, of D-Day. Ambrose is strong on personal stories, obviously using the oral history resources very well. However, the book fails when Ambrose analyzes the strategies of and decisions made by the leaders. His analysis is quick, superficial and inadequately substantiated.Worth the read for the stories, but skip his analysis.
Rating: 
Summary: The best D-day account ever.
Review: I am going to teach a lesson about D-Day later this year, and this book is my primary source. It is an amazing account on a personal basis with all participants in the invasion. I was originally going to just read select parts of the book, but it was so intriguing that I decided to read it cover to cover. Its accounts and writing give it an interesting suubject and the pictures give it volume. I read many books and websites and I saw a few movies on the subject, and this book was the most impressive one. It is a must read if you need any information on D-Day.
Rating:
Summary: Flawed but well worth reading
Review: The other reviews make good points against this book. It focuses on Americans; it has a few technical inaccuracies. On the other hand, the author does an excellent job focusing on the average Joe---and that's why I enjoy his books. As I write this, a generation is dying off. Already, revisionists, liberals, and others are disparaging, distorting, and insulting the accomplishments of the WWII generation. Mr. Ambrose's books help preserve their memory, record their deeds, and might make a few people say "wow" or "I'm thankful for what they did." As for the minor issue about the use of the words "climactic" in the title: I've read books on Kursk and the Eastern Front. I've heard how more pieces of military equipment were used in that one battle than on the entire Western Front for the whole war. But, allegedly even Kursk only merited a couple of lines in the official Wehrmacht war histories. Climactic? Probably not. The climax of a movie, an adventure, even a war, does not necessarily come at the end. The climax is usually a high point of tension and/or action. After the climax there can be a additional plot, action, and mood. One might call that the "wrapup". For the Western Front, there are legitimate reasons to consider D-Day the climactic battle. Yes, the average American has no concept of the suffering endured by the Soviets in WWII. Most Americans have no idea of the numbers of men and equipment that were used on the Eastern Front. In fact, most Americans don't remember the ships and men we lost from the supply convoys to the USSR. Still, it is insulting to call the entire Western Front a sideshow. WWII "experts" may not enjoy this book, but I highly recommend it to people who want to know what the average person from the USA went through on a certain morning in June 1944.
Rating: 
Summary: Unbalanced and unworthy.
Review: A deeply disappointing account of June 6th 1944, I read Ambrose's account with a mixture of irritation, anger and disbelief. One worries for the history students of Univ. of New Orleans if they are fed a daily diet of this flag waving nonsense. Ambrose chooses to dismiss the part played by British, French and Canadian troops in the landings, despite the fact that they assaulted three of the five invasion beaches. Their efforts are afforded 5 chapters, the US soldiers 13. Omaha beach alone is described in three maps and a landing diagram, Gold, Juno and Sword are not deemed worthy of a single map between them. The GI is elevated to superhuman status, the unstoppable product of "an aroused democracy" ( ahem!). The Wehrmacht is deemed "inferior in all respects", except, we are told in the same sentence, for small arms, artillery and tanks (clearly the author thinks these items unimportant.) No opportunity to insult the British is overlooked. Cliché and stereotype are strewn before us as history. Churchill and Montgomery, the gadget-obsessed military hierarchy, the war weary, tea-drinking Tommie, even the greasy food are all singled out for ridicule. German prisoners on the beaches, we are told, even expressed their disappointment at being sent to prison camps in England rather than the United States. Better food, no doubt. Ambrose' prose is irritating at best, at worst it borders on the ridiculous("He was a strange man, the German Fuhrer.") He insists on punctuating the only worthwhile passages in the book, the oral histories of D-Day participants, with sweeping, unsubstantiated statements, often strangely unrelated to what has gone before. Frequently he repeats himself, adding to the reader's pain. Credit is due to the author for acknowledging the role played by US destroyer fire in clearing Omaha beach of many deadly pillboxes, and directly precipitating the breakout from the beach. This is subsequently forgotten however, as we are told again and again, that the "GI won the day." Omaha beach was not the most important battle in World War Two. D-Day and the entire western European theater were dwarfed by the titanic struggles in the East. With this hyperbolic, unbalanced and poorly written account, Prof Ambrose does a dis-service to all who fought in the Normandy campaign, and to those of us who today struggle to understand those momentous events.
Rating:
Summary: D-Day June 6,1944:The Climatic Battle of World War II
Review: The book is well written and straight to the point,that war is hell! .it's a testement to the courage of the man and women who served on that fatefull day!
Rating:
Summary: Captivating, if a little reptitive.
Review: Ambrose has spent so much of his career tied up in the history of Eisenhower that it really colors his other work. The post-WWII autobiographies really did paper over the deep divisions between the Americans and Britsh on fighting style. The Brits favored concentrated, methodical attack while the Yanks wanted speed, exploitation and movement. Fifty years later this tension is still evident and comes through in Ambrose's writing. The fact that he does not include the Brits in this tale is no problem, keeping focus just upon that action at Omaha keeps the book tight. However, the little snipes at the British do tend to stand out and detract from the book. Overall, I thought he did well to illuminate how American training and decentralization of command did much to win the day at Omaha (that and air power which kept enemy reinforcements and even top Nazi generals away from the battlefield). The book's title is not misleading. Despite what some others say, D-Day, along with Stalingrad and the Battle of Britian, were probably THE key engagements in the European Theater. So Ambrose's book title, while still a bit hyperbolitic, is pretty accurate.
Rating:
Summary: Who cares if it's not shining scholarship?
Review: Boy, to read some of these reviews, you'd think this book was a mess. Not so! OK, Amborse makes short shrift of everyone but the Americans. No arguement there. Anyone who wants to know the story of Gold, Sword, or Juno - don't bother with this book. However, if you want the infantryman's-eye-view of Omaha, this is as good as it gets. Ambrose has done a fantastic job of gathering interviews from men who were there. He displays a real gift for pulling out the quotes that tell the story. Clear descriptions and easy-to-understand maps give you a remarkably accurate picture of what happened when and where. I have never been in combat and I don't for one second pretend that I have a clue what it must be like. That said, this book is so well-written that I got a sense of being there (almost). For me, it's rare that a book pulls me in so deeply that I get that feeling. This one does. Don't confuse this book with the stuff you read in HIST101. It's not meant to be a scholarly work - there's plenty of that out there already. It is meant to tell the story of, if not THE climactic battle of WWII (OK, I'll give you that - Stalingrad was probably more the more important turning point), then certainly one of the most important days of the 20th Century. Ambrose succeeds letting the men who were there bring the story to life.
Rating: 
Summary: This book isn't history.
Review: Stephen Ambrose writes books as opium for Americans. This book just propagates ignorance. How can book claiming to be history, deride whole nations, and ignore the real facts (D-day in no way is the climactic battle). I know people in America dislike Russia, but Stalingrad was of much more importance than D-day, and there were far more German forces fighting Russia, than there were fighting the British, the Americans, the Canadians, the Polish, and the French.
Rating:
Summary: A Fascinating book but not unflawed
Review: This book is a tremendous read. The combat stories are horrendous and will make you appreciate what veterans have done for this country and for the world. The chapters on Omaha Beach are gorily fascinating and incredibly detailed. The continuous accounts from the soldiers that were there makes almost impossible to put down. Beware though that Ambrose gives short shrift to the British who must have been as important (if not more important) to the battle than the Yanks. I would have liked to see him give an equal account of what happened on Juno Beach and the British beaches just like he did for Omaha. He also draws the conclusion that German troops were inferior - very doubtful; just worn down and battered by the collective forces of the allies. All in all a tremendous experience to read the book, but readers need to take into account that it should have been written more objectively and accurately in a historic sense.
Rating: 
Summary: Readability 5, Historical objectivity 1 - Overall 3 stars
Review: An objective, analytical and comprehensive assessment of the military significance and impact of the allied landings in Normandy on June 6th 1944 is NOT what this book is about. The subtitle of the book ("The climatic battle of WWII") is simply wrong - there were many other battles with more military significane than D-Day. That said, this is an excellent read with lots of first hand accounts and anecdotes from the oral histories of the participants. It is a gripping account of the confusion, chaos and carnage that reigned on the invasion beaches. The chapters describing the 'Omaha' beach landings are graphic and bloody. A comment made in the book that "war is waste" is well illustrated in the detailed treatment given to the losses of men and material on Omaha. You can not help but shudder if you picture in your minds eye what one soldier saw that morning - "thousands of body parts lined the Omaha beach...floating heads, arms legs...that was the first wave of the 116th regiment." Or the other GI who after struggling ashore flung himself down, finding a place in a long line of 50 or so soldiers sensibly seeking shelter he thought) behind a sewall, only to discover with a shock that every single one of them was a deadman. The book is more like a novel or a screenplay. In fact the real 'Mrs Ryan' of "Saving Private Ryan" was actually a Mrs Niland who received her 3 telegrams on the same day advising of the deaths of her 3 sons. Another scene from the movie is based on the account of a soldier who when asked to lend assistance replied that he could not becasuse he did not know what to do with 'THIS'. This - being his severed left arm which he was carrying in his right hand. Overall the book depicts the humand drama of the day. There were some heroes and some cowards. There were mistakes made by the allies - naval friendly fire killed 64 soldiers in one incident and the airborne drops at night landed many paratroopers in flooded fields where some drowned or in towns where they were hung up in trees or buildings and shot on sight. The point the author wants to make he makes early on. Namely - It was the intense training that the allied soldiers were subjected that got them through during the crises of 'plans gone to hell'. The individual platoon and company commander used his initiative wheras the German soldier was frozen by his orders and rigid command structure. Also the deception plans played a major role in keeping the Germans off guard and giving the allies critical breathing room. If you can avoid getting upset over some of the other views that the author pushes repeatedly - 'the US GI's at Omaha won the day,''the British couldn't fight for an hour without stopping for tea'then the first hand accounts, excellent maps and overall readability makes it a book well worth picking up.
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