D-Day

I loved this intriguing book about D-Day by Sir Martin Gilbert. My father was an American GI who landed at Utah Beach in Normandy. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in World War II. The maps are terrific! I was able to get permission to use one of Sir Martin Gilbert's maps from this book in my book, We Never Lost Hope, A Holocaust Memoir and Love Story, which helped support the authenticity of my family's story.

Martin Gilbert is one of the most prolific and most readable of contemporary historians of the World Wars, the scope of his books ranging from the magisterial 8-volume biography of Churchill to virtually day by day histories of both World Wars, down to a study such as this one, which focuses on the human experience surrounding just one day, May 8 1945, the day World War II was officially over. Well, he covers more than that. Gilbert initially reviews the final military destruction of Hitler's Germany, with a good overview of the change of government to Donitz, and their last minute struggle to save at least some of the situation - and population - in the east while surrendering to the west. There is interesting discussion regarding the actual date to be established for the war-ending holiday, Churchill and Truman on one side of the issue, Stalin on the other. (Guess who caved?) And the tragedies of the millions and millions of displaced people, from every nationality and ethnicity, choking the roads across Europe, the war not yet finished with them, are movingly brought to life. Gilbert does not shy away from covering the shameful post-war Operation Keelhaul, either, where the Americans and British forcibly and at gunpoint 'repatriated' millions of Russian POWs held by the Germans back to Uncle Joe, knowing they were sending them to long-term hard labor in the Gulag or (for officers) execution. But the heart of the book is a long series of personal stories and memories, skilfully woven together and organized by location or particular event. Gilbert had correspondents from all walks of life and from most nations writing about their memories of this time, and what it meant to them, and the highly personal 'I was there' nature of these reminisces brings home some of the immense suffering the war caused, and still causes. The book is particularly strong on the Jewish experience. The book's central strength is this laserlike focusing on the individual. The downside is that there is, besides the editing of these letters and interviews to fit his narrative structure, no real original research here. All of the information save the recollections (and some of them, too) are to be found in one or the other of Gilbert's other books in greater detail. Gilbert's very prolific output has come to mean that there is a good deal of overlap between some of his books, and this is the case here. Gilbert is always readable, and this book is a powerful, emotional, if not comprehensive, compendium of memories of people who were there then, a rapidly shrinking group today. If the reader wants a more military or political review of the final collapse of Germany, this will not likely be the best choice.

I found this book to be a fast and excellent read. Where Ambrose's DDAY is a minute by minute tactical read of this moment in history, Gilbert focuses on the overall strategy and illuminates key points during the invasion. Gilbert also introduces a novel concept to American readers, Montgomery as an outstanding leader, loved by his men, and not just the prima donna other books and movies have made him out to be. Gilbert also makes a solid effort to accurately account not just for the lives lost by the Allied troops but also by French civilians prior to, during, and after the invasion. This is a well written account of DDay and worth the time to read.

On the surface, Gilbert is a "Dragnet" man - "Just the facts." A Gilbert history, however, has passionate undercurrents - there are few writers as dedicated to their causes and themes as Martin Gilbert. In this skilfully arranged series of vignettes, "The Day the War Ended," he conveys the relief and frustrations of VE day: the finished and the unfinished business of 1945. For me the most poignant scene is the adolescent German who, upon hearing of the surrender, leaves his civil defense unit, goes home and takes off his uniform. His name: Helmut Kohl.

Martin Gilbet collects personal histories like other people collect stamps, but instead of just sticking them side by side in an album, he inserts them into their proper historical context. The result is a fascinating and readable account, not only of the final days of WWII, but of the events that preceeded and followed the official Victory in Europe Day, May 5, 1945. I highly recommend this book to both casual readers and scholars, and I anticipate reading it again.