War Stories of D-Day: Operation Overlord: June 6, 1944

There is much value in preserving the words of past generations, and of veterans in particular. The things they experienced are crucial to remember, and having those remembrances in their own words, with their own unique cadences and figures of speech, preserves these memories in the way they were originally remembered, and so any such exercise is of great value. "War Stories of D-Day" collects 41 first-person accounts of American veterans during the invasion of Normandy and gives an overview of the wide variety of conditions soldiers, sailors and airmen found themselves in on the "Day of Days." The initial images one might have of D-Day are of troops under fire at Omaha Beach, the Rangers at Point du Hoc, or of paratroopers falling through the darkness into combat, and those stories are certainly here, but there are others: glider pilots, Coast Guardsmen driving landing craft to the beach, support personnel, tankers and others. Together, these accounts illustrate just how massive, confusing and at the same time personal participation in such a massive operation must have been. There are a few things that could have been better. There's very little stage set before jumping off into the stories; only a brief four-page introduction explains the operation, so a working knowledge of Operation Overlord's various components would be useful. The introduction of the speakers all too often omits important details, like the rank of the speaker or the unit he belonged to. The responsibilities of an officer and the responsibilities of a private would have been very different, and leaving out this information makes it hard to put some of the soldiers' actions into context. The coverage of the air support aspect of the battle is cursory at best. Perhaps worst of all, in some cases, veterans' mistakenly give numbers and "facts" about the battle which are incorrect, and the authors allow them to go in without correction or notations. That's a major hazard of first-person histories and one that should have been caught. That said, the unvarnished accounts of the paratroopers, landing troops and men at sea are affecting and provide a real indication of the stresses and mindset of the men who landed at Normandy. If you want a book about what went on at Normandy, look elsewhere, but if you want a book about how it felt to be there, then this one's for you.