D-Day

Contents

Prologue

1 The Defenders

2 The Attackers

3 The Commanders

4 Where And When?

5 Utilizing Assets

6 Planning and Preparing

7 Training

8 Marshaling and Briefing

9 Loading

10 Decision to Go

11 Cracking the Atlantic Wall

The Airborne into Normandy

12 "Let's Get Those Bastards"

The Airborne Night Attack

13 "The Greatest Show Ever Staged"

The Air Bombardment

14 A Long, Endless Column of Ships

The Naval Crossing and Bombardment

15 "We'll Start the War from Right Here"

The 4th Division at Utah Beach

16 "Nous Restons Ici"

The Airborne in the Cotentin

17 Visitors to Hell

The 116th Regiment at Omaha

18 Utter Chaos Reigned

The 16th Regiment at Omaha

19 Traffic Jam

Tanks, Artillery, and Engineers at Omaha

20 "I Am A Destroyer Man"

The Navy at Omaha Beach

21 "Will You Tell Me How We Did This?"

The 2nd Ranger Battalion on D-Day Morning

22 Up the Bluff at Vierville

The 116th Regiment and 5th Ranger Battalion

23 Catastrophe Contained

Easy Red Sector, Omaha Beach

24 Struggle for the High Ground

Vierville, St.-Laurent, and Colleville

25 "It Was Just Fantastic"

Afternoon on Omaha Beach

26 The World Holds Its Breath

D-Day on the Home Fronts

27 "Fairly Stuffed With Gadgets"

The British Opening Moves

28 "Everything Was Well Ordered"

The 50th Division at Gold Beach

29 Payback

The Canadians at Juno Beach

30 "An Unforgettable Sight"

The British at Sword Beach

31 "My God, We've Done It"

The British Airborne on D-Day

32 "When Can Their Glory Fade?"

The End of the Day

Glossary

Endnotes

Bibliography

Appendix A: Veterans who contributed oral histories or written memoirs to the Eisenhower Center

Index

Maps

The Final Overlord Invasion Plan

German Strength in Western Europe

Landing Diagram, Omaha Beach

Utah Beach Airborne Assault on D-Day

The Allied Assault Routes on D-Day

Utah Beach Infantry Assault on D-Day

Omaha Beach First Wave Landings on D-Day

Omaha Beach Eastern Sector

Omaha Beach Evening of D-Day
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.
Stephen E. Ambrose was a renowned historian and acclaimed author of more than thirty books. Among his New York Times bestsellers are Nothing Like It in the World, Citizen Soldiers, Band of Brothers, D-Day - June 6, 1944, and Undaunted Courage. Dr. Ambrose was a retired Boyd Professor of History at the University of New Orleans and a contributing editor for the Quarterly Journal of Military History.
John Lehman The Wall Street Journal Definitive...His evidence is overwhelming.
Raleigh Trevelyan The New York Times Book Review D-Day is mostly about people, but goes even further in evoking the horror, the endurance, the daring and, indeed, the human failings at Omaha Beach...Outstanding.
Christopher Lehmann-Haupt The New York Times Reading this history, you can understand why for so many of its participants, despite all the death surrounding them, life revealed itself in that moment at that place.
Thomas B. Buell Chicago Tribune Historians and public alike should be profoundly grateful to Ambrose...for assembling this comprehensive and permanent record that will be forever a resource for remembering Normandy.