D-Day June 6, 1944; The Climactic Battle of World War II
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. 656 pages. Illustrations. Maps. Glossary. Endnotes. Bibliography. Appendix. Index. Minor foxing to top edge, slight wear to DJ edges. Stephen Edward Ambrose (January 10, 1936 – October 13, 2002) was an American historian, academic, and author, most noted for his books on World War II and his biographies of U.S. presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard Nixon. He was a professor of history at the University of New Orleans and the author of bestselling volumes of American popular history. Ambrose was a history professor from 1960 until his 1995 retirement. From 1971 onward, he was a member of the University of New Orleans faculty, and was named the Boyd Professor of History in 1989, an honor given to faculty who attain "national or international distinction for outstanding teaching, research, or other creative achievement". Ambrose wrote biographies of the generals Emory Upton and Henry Halleck, the first of which was based on his dissertation. In 1964, Ambrose was commissioned to write the official biography of the former president and five-star general Dwight D. Eisenhower. This resulted in a book on Eisenhower's war years, The Supreme Commander, and a two-volume full biography, which are considered "the standard" on the subject. A visit to a reunion of Easy Company veterans in 1988 prompted Ambrose to collect their stories, turning them into Band of Brothers, E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne: From Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest. D-Day, built upon additional oral histories, presented the battle from the view points of individual soldiers and became his first best seller. The book chronicles the first 24 hours of the Allied invasion of France, relying heavily on over 1,400 oral histories and veteran interviews to tell the story through the eyes of the "citizen soldiers" who executed the daring assault. Instead of focusing purely on top-level generals and tactical troop movements, the book highlights the grit, initiative, and resourcefulness of junior officers and enlisted men on the ground. Ambrose underscores how these citizen soldiers took matters into their own hands when intricate Allied plans began to fall apart under the harsh realities of combat. Stephen E. Ambrose’s D-Day is the definitive history of World War II’s most pivotal battle, a day that changed the course of history. D-Day is the epic story of men at the most demanding moment of their lives, when the horrors, complexities, and triumphs of life are laid bare. Distinguished historian Stephen E. Ambrose portrays the faces of courage and heroism, fear and determination—what Eisenhower called “the fury of an aroused democracy”—that shaped the victory of the citizen soldiers whom Hitler had disparaged. Drawing on more than 1,400 interviews with American, British, Canadian, French, and German veterans, Ambrose reveals how the original plans for the invasion had to be abandoned, and how enlisted men and junior officers acted on their own initiative when they realized that nothing was as they were told it would be. The action begins at midnight, June 5/6, when the first British and American airborne troops jumped into France. It ends at midnight June 6/7. Focusing on those pivotal twenty-four hours, it moves from the level of Supreme Commander to that of a French child, from General Omar Bradley to an American paratrooper, from Field Marshal Montgomery to a German sergeant. Ambrose’s D-Day is the finest account of one of our history’s most important days. Condition: Very good / Very good.
Keywords: WWII, D-Day, European Theater, U.S. Army Air Force, Winston Churchill, Dwight Eisenhower, Nazi Germany, Paratroopers, Juno Beach
ISBN: 0671673343
[Book #42737]
Price: $35.00