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A review by linorosa
The Longest Day: June 6th, 1944 by Cornelius Ryan
3.0
This obviously took an obsessive amount of research.
Unfortunately the almost minute-by-minute exposition of the 24 hour period surrounding the D-day invasion is too detailed to maintain much emotional connection. There are some chapters here and there dedicated to a single person and I think those are much more interesting. But in general the homeric flood of names, ranks and deeds removes some of the emotion in favor of accurate historial description.
Some takeaways:
* There's so much luck involved, not only at the planning levels but also for the individual soldier.
* Hitler created an insulated environment where his generals were afraid to give him bad news, or worse mistakenly give him bad news. This was a major contribution for them fumbling the defense on D-day.
* We generally think those iconic Higgins boats were the first to touch land at the D-day invasion, but paratroopers were first during the night, followed by gliders. All before the boats arrived.
Unfortunately the almost minute-by-minute exposition of the 24 hour period surrounding the D-day invasion is too detailed to maintain much emotional connection. There are some chapters here and there dedicated to a single person and I think those are much more interesting. But in general the homeric flood of names, ranks and deeds removes some of the emotion in favor of accurate historial description.
Some takeaways:
* There's so much luck involved, not only at the planning levels but also for the individual soldier.
* Hitler created an insulated environment where his generals were afraid to give him bad news, or worse mistakenly give him bad news. This was a major contribution for them fumbling the defense on D-day.
* We generally think those iconic Higgins boats were the first to touch land at the D-day invasion, but paratroopers were first during the night, followed by gliders. All before the boats arrived.