Voices of D-Day : the story of the Allied invasion, told by those who were there /

The 50th anniversary of D-Day has spawned a new crop of books about this memorable event. Of the older works, Cornelius Ryan's The Longest Day (1960) still holds its own. The best of the new books is undoubtedly Stephen Ambrose's D-Day, June 6, 1944 (1994) which offers more recent information on the strategy, planning, and preparation of both sides than Ryan's account. Drez's work is a compilation of stories of individuals who were there, skillfully edited and arranged to make a coherent tale. The book has standard maps but no bibliography, no index, no glossary, and no analytical narration. Although not a good "first" book about the Normandy invasion, Drez's compilation is valuable as a follow-up to Ryan or Ambrose to find out what soldiers were feeling. Of interest particularly to scholars of the conflict, WW II buffs, and veterans of the battle, this work will find a place on the shelves of college libraries with strong history collections. Upper-division undergraduates and above. M. O'Donnell; College of Staten Island, CUNY

A project conducted by the Eisenhower Center at the University of New Orleans, this selection of oral histories (augmented with excerpts from published memoirs) comprises the recollections of the Normandy beachhead on June 6, 1944, by American, British, Canadian and German soldiers plus a handful of French civilians. Pathfinders, commandoes, airborne troops, glider pilots, landing-craft coxswains, infantrymen, combat engineers, men of all ranks, recall the confusion and disorientation of that dreadful 24-hour period with its shocking tactical confrontations, unexpected terrors and impersonal slaughter. Through these vivid, succinctly spoken accounts, readers experience vicariously one of history's great military moments. Drez is assistant director of the Eisenhower Center. Photos. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

A no-frills oral history of Operation Overlord that, for all its considerable virtues, falls short of the high standard set by other books commemorating the 50th anniversary of the invasion. Drez is assistant director of the Eisenhower Center at the University of New Orleans, which for more than 10 years has been collecting memoirs from lower-echelon veterans of the Anglo- American and Canadian forces who participated in the mid-1944 invasion of occupied Europe that signaled the beginning of the end for Hitler's Third Reich. He has used excerpts from the biographical material supplied by approximately 150 of the archive's 1,440-odd contributors to stitch together a vivid if limited version of the D-day story. His roster of sources, which encompasses Wehrmacht defenders and members of the French resistance as well as Allied troops, is at least representative, but Drez offers barely enough background information to keep the narrative comprehensible. In their set-piece testimony, the soldiers, sailors, and airmen who assaulted coastal France's strongly fortified beaches (in many cases after rides across the English Channel on landing craft whose violent maneuverings left them seasick) or dropped behind German lines under cover of darkness provide graphic accounts of the horrors experienced by combatants at the sharp end of the bayonet in Normandy. Without a big-picture perspective from Drez, however, readers unfamiliar with events could come away with precious little sense of the occasion that demanded such fearful sacrifices. Nor does the editor offer even a summary briefing on what happened to his valiant subjects in the European theater of operations or elsewhere after their first 24 hours ashore. Affecting reminiscences from the survivors of a famous victory afford a kaleidoscopic first-draft reckoning of its appalling costs.