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Summary: a fantastic description of d-day 1944
Review: ambrose is able to deliver every detail without boring you. this book uses direct interviews of the participants to show its point. very patriotic, but gives insight to both sides.
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Summary: We need this book
Review: It's too easy to forget the sacrifices made by our fathers' generation. This book is a much needed reminder of what the men at Normandy endured. When all the plans went to hell in a handbasket for a myriad of reasons, it was the individual soldier, noncom and junior officer, who took the initiative and made the breaching of "Festung Europa" possible. Ambrose vividly re-creates the atmosphere of chaos and violence that defined Omaha Beach. He also makes it clear that if Omaha had failed (as it nearly did), the whole invasion would have been a colossal debacle. When one considers the scope of the Normandy invasion, it's hard to find fault with this work.
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Summary: Narrative with big holes
Review: I liked his use of the soldier's point of view. But, all in all, a big disappointment. He didn't make good use of the maps to tell the story. For that matter, there should have been more maps.The unpardonable thing was the way he treated what happened on the British and Canadian beaches, all of which got a couple of small chapters at the end. It was almost as if saying, oh, by the way, there were some Brits around who landed on a couple of beaches.
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Summary: A day to remember
Review: Ambrose tells the story of D-Day as a true historian. A great deal of the material comes from oral histories of the men and women involved. Ambrose covers all aspects of the battle from planning to execution. Ambrose is biased toward telling the American side of the story, giving the British and Canadians only 5 chapters, less than a quarter of the book. Otherwise an excellent history with good story telling as well.
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Summary: A vivid depiction of life and death in the front lines.
Review: Read this book to understand what the first 20 minutes of "Saving Private Ryan" really involved. Detailed descriptions of individual soldiers' experiences, taken from exhaustive interviews and documents, tells a story more compelling and human than you could get from a film or academic military study. Read this book before you see the film. If you've seen the film, read this book and then see it again.
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Summary: What a generation.
Review: This book is typical of Steven Ambrose: well-written, well-researched and absorbing. It has caused me to look at my father's generation with an even higher regard. Some parts, especially the Omaha beach battle description, are not for the squeamish but they accurately depict the kind of sacrifice that these people made. I recommend it highly. God bless America's Veterans.
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Summary: The One Book About D-Day to Own
Review: As an Army veteran (of the Vietnam era), if I were to have only book on the most important battles of WWII and perhaps the greatest battle of the millenium -- this would be it. The chapter on Omaha beach should be required reading for every American citizen. This book does not glorify war, but it underscores the heroic effort required to establish the peace that we enjoy even unto this day.
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Summary: Emotional account of one of the greatest struggles of mankid
Review: Wounderfully written, in the fact that Ambrose told most of the story from the soliders point of view. Especially the stories of Omaha beach (16th,116th).
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Summary: An incredible story, but poorly written.
Review: I enjoyed this book, but ultimately felt dissappointed in Ambrose's slack writing style (at one point he describes tanks that sank in the water off Omaha Beach as having gone "glub glub." C'mon.) and the lack of any strong historical analysis. The book is excellent to the extent that reading it feels like you're sitting at a bar with a bunch of vets and they are telling you their stories. It is very focused on the American experience at Normandy, with relatively little on the British and Canadian roles (even though the Brits attacked more beaches than the Yanks). The book also does not put D-Day in any critical context of its role in the war. Was it an important event? Of course, but I would have enjoyed more analysis that compared D-Day to other events in the European theater of the War--like the battles in Russia which arguably were more important to the ultimate defeat of Hitler than D-Day. Was D-Day the "climactic battle of WWII?" I would have liked a stronger argument from Ambrose that indeed it was. Ambrose is a better writer and historian than this book suggests--check out "Undaunted Courage" if you want to read some first-rate history crisply and compelling written. D-Day is good, but not great.
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Summary: Excellent commentary, a great read!
Review: If you have any interest in the D-Day Invasion this is the book to read. Ambrose's compilation of oral historys makes the book come alive. I read it on the way to visit Normandy in '94. Don't miss it.
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