DDay By Stephen Ambrose (1 Viewer)

[Currahee Chris]

I just finished the DDay book by Stephen Ambrose. Very very good, I thought- wasn't quite as innundated with unit and ranks references as Band of Brothers was- still though, his books could probably get cut back 20-30 pages dropping these refences

I enjoyed the breadth of the story. I thought there was going to be some more discussion from the German side of the event. Gave me a good overview of who Lord Lovat was- I didn't know before reading the book.

I also didn't realize how difficult Juno Beach was as well- the Canadians really took a pounding for their beachhead.

I think the book best summarized the futility of the Atlantic wall and Hitler's obsession with defending every inch of ground when at the end, Ambrose rattles off all sorts of statistics regarding the development and construction of the Atlantic Wall, the coastal defenses, the manpower and logisitics and material involved and that, when the metal met the meat, it really only held us up for far less than a day- in comparison to the amount of work it entailed, it just wasn't worth it. Ambrose even offers that it may have been as useless as the Maginot line.

I was really impressed by the Navy's involvement in the event. I just felt that after reading this book, Saving Private Ryan didn't capture the complete brutality of that moment. My best friend's grandfather was one of the coxswain's on Omaha and he said SPR was almost laughable- it still wasn't brutal enough. I held my tongue whenever he would say that as I thought he was exagerating but, after reading this book, I am convinced he was right.

The contention of June 6th as the most important day in the 20th Century does surface time and again. In my opinion, it was certainly in the top five, but I still, and again, this is just my opinion, I think when we dropped Atomic weapons on Japan, that was the day that the entire geopolitical environment changed- certainly DDay was a biggie- I also think Nov. 11, 1918 was huge, the Fall of the Berlin Wall was huge as was the Stock Market crash in 1929.

Well, I would recommend the book- it is imposing at 600+ pages but reads pretty quickly.

Take care
CC

 

[binder001]

I agree on the high quality. Ambrose's books are generally easy reads and full of good information.

I love reading about the battles in and for Normandy. If I ever win the lottery I'm going to go walk the beaches, lanes and hedgerows.

By the way, DDay is the "biggie" but look at what else was happening at the same time; The Russians were gearing up for another go at the Germans in the East, Rome had just fallen the day before to Allied forces, and in the Pacific the US Navy and Marines (with Army units attached) were moving forward to invade the Mariana Islands and the Southwest Pacific forces were still pushing hard at the Japanese. The Marianas effort involved fewer units but they had to cross vast distances and were facing a very real naval threat. It was the US invasion of the Marianas that would trigger an enemy naval response that would be the end of Japanese carrier aviation assets.

Anyway, Ambroses' "DDay" is one of the best overall books on the invasion itself, and the following "Citizen Soldiers" takes the story of the US Army in Europe all the way to VE day. There are lots more books that deal in detail with equipment, ships, and local battles, but "DDay" is an excellent starting point.

Gary

 

[Currahee Chris]

I hope to get to Normandy some day as well.

Interesting you should mention Citizen Soldiers as that is what I am currently involved with- figure it made sense to jump right into it- my wife got me a 3 pack of DDay, Citizen Soldiers and some book on the Eighth Air Force?? by Ambrose.

Got to think Citizen is good with Colin Powel giving it praise- he's a pretty tough critic (so I've heard)

 

[Wraith]

Interesting you should mention Citizen Soldiers as that is what I am currently involved with- figure it made sense to jump right into it- my wife got me a 3 pack of DDay, Citizen Soldiers and some book on the Eighth Air Force?? by Ambrose.

'Wild Blue'? Coincidently, I'm half way through reading this one.
Not enjoying it as much as BOB - seems to skip all over the place, but it's an interesting enough read.

 

[Currahee Chris]

'Wild Blue'? Coincidently, I'm half way through reading this one.
Not enjoying it as much as BOB - seems to skip all over the place, but it's an interesting enough read.

There you go- that's it- Wild Blue. I kind of had a feeling it wasn't going to be as good as the others- seems a bit narrow in scope.

 

[binder001]

Trivia - "Wild Blue" is the book that tarnished Mr. Ambroses reputation a little. He was using research assistants to help with the book(s) and one of them lifted some material from another source. Ambrose didn't catch it and ended up being sued for plagarism.

It's unfortunate that Stephen Ambrose died so young, I'll bet he had a number of stories and projects still in him.

Gary B

 

[Currahee Chris]

Trivia - "Wild Blue" is the book that tarnished Mr. Ambroses reputation a little. He was using research assistants to help with the book(s) and one of them lifted some material from another source. Ambrose didn't catch it and ended up being sued for plagarism.

It's unfortunate that Stephen Ambrose died so young, I'll bet he had a number of stories and projects still in him.

Gary B

Ok- Ah ha!! I thought that this was that book. Yeah, I agree, he was writing up till his death so he was definately into his work.