June 06, 2008

June 6, 1944

A long time ago I went through a period of reading an awful lot of World War 2 history. One of the best and most accessible books about the Normandy invasion is Cornelius Ryan's The Longest Day. If you're interested in what happened at Omaha, Utah, Gold, Juno and Sword Beaches that day, Ryan's book is required reading.

I've seen Saving Private Ryan, and it's a wonderful film, but I think the plot gets in the way of the real events. Ryan's book (and the film based on it) let the battle tell the story.

Here's some newsreel footage of D-Day from the German perspective (the glass seems to be half-full here).

Here's some more German film, but in a more documentary style.

Ryan wrote two other excellent books about the war: A Bridge Too Far about the failed attempt to capture bridges across the lower Rhine and take Arnhem, and The Last Battle, the battle for Berlin. Both of them are told in the same fashion, with small stories interspersed with large-scope explanations.

Posted by Linkmeister at June 6, 2008 11:17 AM | TrackBack
Comments

War History is distressing to me. To think of all those men lost (boyfriends, husbands, sons, etc.) is something I have a hard time dealing with. For me to read history about a war, it needs to be softened.

Posted by: cassie-b at June 6, 2008 02:01 PM

Haven't read The Longest Day yet, although I've seen the movie a bunch of times. (I was playing a Steel Panthers World at War scenario last night whilst watching the Dodgers and Cubs. St. Mere Eglise was on the map, and every time I scrolled by the town I thought of Red Buttons hanging from the steeple by his parachute.) I have read A Bridge Too Far, and own the movie, and every time I think about it I get outraged that Montgomery was allowed to go through with a plan with so little real chance of success. Almost makes me wonder if Monty's ghost has been advising Bush and Co.

Posted by: DXMachina at June 9, 2008 04:08 AM