Omaha Beach: D-Day, June 6, 1944

My dad was a US Army Ranger on Omaha Beach, but took all those stories with him to his grave. This book was about as close as I will ever get to a discussion with him about that day. Some of the stories are sad, some horrid, some will raise the hair on the back of your neck.---The Good Points--- * Much of the book, probably 2/3 or better, are direct quotes from interviews, battle histories, official US Army after-action reports, and eyewitness accounts. For a "man on the beach" look at what happened that day, you simply can not do any better. Some of the stories are from relatively soon after the invasion, so still have that raw edge to them. Others are from years later, and while more polished, have lost some of their stark reality. * There is a nice assortment of sources, from Privates to Generals. Many events are related from multiple sources, and the confusion of the battle is clearly evident in these. * Balkoski writes with a light touch. He keeps his own narrative to a minimum, just enough to set up the context for the direct quotes and interviews. * I can't imagine the work that went into sorting through all the accounts of this battle that are available, and piecing them together to form any sort of coherent story. For the most part, he succeeds, and Balkoski should get an award from the army for doing that. The book is long, but probably could have been 10 times longer and still be interesting.--The Not So Good Stuff--- * This is a book about D-Day at Omaha Beach. It is not a story about the planning, decision making, or the tradeoffs that went into the selection of this beach. It is not about the campaign across France that followed- it isn't even about June 7, 1944, or even what happened in the countryside during the hours before the invasion. It is not about the German defense, the civilians, the generals (with a couple amazing exceptions), or the politicians. It is about D-Day on Omaha Beach, period. Depending on your historical knowledge, this may or may not be an issue. Having good background knowledge on the planning and preparation of the battle, and its many related efforts, will make this a much more enjoyable book. * While I understand the format Balkoski chose, it can be hard to follow. He jumps around quite a bit, and with only minimal narrative in between the quotations, it is hard to follow. I would have preferred more explanation and a stronger matrix into which the individual stories fit. * The maps in the Kindle edition are all over the place. Some are legible, many are not. They are certainly not detailed or legible enough to serve as a credible reference for the material in the book. A little googling will lead you to a much better map. This will help quite a bit as you read the story.---Overall--- I liked the book, although I found it somewhat hard to read. Often I had to re-read an interview, as well as the surrounding ones, to put the events in to the context of the battle. And while I understand that the book is specifically limited to June 6, 1944 on Omaha Beach, a little more background and overview would have improved the work. I wish I had read this book before I visited Omaha Beach-it would have been invaluable. I'd highly recommend it to anyone planning such a visit.

This is how history should be recorded. Balkoski provides a good mix of firsthand accounts and thorough storytelling. The author attempts to provide a comprehensive account of the events of D-Day at Omaha beach and succeeds. As the author admits, there remains more to be discovered about the story of Omaha beach, and sifting through all the available material and determining what to include was one of the most difficult parts about writing this history, but the presentation that Balkoski provides will keep readers interest from start to finish. The book is well researched (over 20 years) and provides ample citation so the reader can trust the integrity of the story presented. The author also had his manuscript read by numerous veterans of Omaha and D-Day historians.The book tells the story of the Omaha landings in roughly chronological order from the inception of D-day to the completion of actions on the evening on D-Day. The reader will be gripped by apprehension as Balkoski tells the story of the ineffective aerial bombings and naval barrage and devastation of the first wave of assault troops. Then you will get caught up in the story of individual soldiers and units as they struggle to get off the beach. Balkoski inserts in brackets information into the firsthand accounts to make them more readable and complete and correcting inaccuracies. The book includes good use of maps showing the landing location of units and movement of units down to the company level in most cases. There are also numerous pictures which enhance the story. The book includes several appendixes which provide allied casualties at Omaha, listing of Medal of Honor and Distinguished Service Cross Award recipients on D-Day at Omaha, listing of the allied units involved in the first wave, composition of typical assault boat teams, and uniform and equipment of boat team leaders. My only complaint is that there was very little provided about the German side. The units engaged are identified by regiment and the fortifications are described, but little else is provided about specific unit allocations and movements. The author admits that the source material is very one sided and says there is little available except high command accounts and the majority of the rest can't be fit into the timeline. I hope more will be uncovered to provide a fitting composite to the story. Regardless, I still enjoyed the book immensely.Potential readers should keep in mind that this history is extremely focused on the events of Omaha beach. While there is some background into the planning of D-Day, much is left out which the author deemed to be out of scope of Omaha. The author does tell the story of the Eight Air Force pre-landing bombing mission at Omaha beach and arduous cross-channel movements of the Navy Assault Force "O". However, discussions about the other landing (while they are named) are avoided as well as the airborne operations. If you would like to know more about the overall operation and its planning, I would recommend Cornelius Ryan's  The Longest Day: The Classic Epic of D-Day  and  Last Battle: The Classic History of the Battle for Berlin  (which includes a lot information on the planning of Operation Overlord).  Cross Channel Attack  by Gordon Harrison is also a great resource. Having said that, Balkoski does what he sets out to achieve and any reader would benefit from this account.

Book was delivered in virtually bulletproof packaging and was in mint condition.

I do not often read histories of battles but I wanted to know more about Omaha Beach and Utah Beach.This book covers the the reasoning, planning and training for the attack on the beach in some detail. It then covers D-Day in great detail, almost minute by minute in some cases.IT covers the errors made, the courage of all concerned, especially the naval commanders who disobeyed orders to bring their cargos in much closer to shore. It covers the absolute carnage on the beaches. IT also shows how the fact that the current that took the landing craft away from their target areas actually helped the invasion.Detailed maps of each small area and at short intervals in time make following the narrative much easier.Books like this can be boring but I found this one gripping from start to finish. This is helped by quotes from the people concerned and reports made just after the battle that reveal the stories of the actual people involved.For anyone interested in these battles, this is the book to read. I have read other books on Omaha which were not a patch on this oneI can also recommend Utah Beach by the same author, it has exactly the same format and deals with the airborne and seaborne landings on that beach.

After visiting Normandy and spending sometime at Omaha beach,I decided to delve deeper into the actions of the day at this location.This book fits the bill perfectly,as it covers the 6th of June in tremendous detail,and with dozens of participants testimonies,it never becomes a slog getting through the 400 plus pages.Plenty of maps make it easy to find where the different actions took place at various times through the day,and the casualty list seems to be the most accurate one published to date.If you only buy one book about Omaha Beach,this is the one to get,and its cheap as chips..

I enjoyed this book more than I can say.Having visited Omaha beach twice now it is amazing to read such detailed account ofwhat happened on this beach, where it happened and why.The authors attention to detail is staggering and his use of mixing first person accountswith historical information is perfect.It is so simple to picture every sector if you have visited the beach, as the author tells the story.Even if you have not been to Omaha you are still given a very accurate description of thebeach and the battlefields above the bluffs. This is made possible my the authors trips to Omahaand walking the footsteps of the men who were there.This is well worth a read for anyone with an interest in D Day and if Omaha beach has fascinated youas it has me for years, then I can't recommend this book enough.

I wish the younger generations would be more interested in history rather than social media!I personally would highly recommend this book! Excellently written!

Interesting reading and a well researched true book of events on that beach on that day