On the morning of June 6, 1944, the fate of the free world was loaded into landing craft and dropped into the surf off the coast of Normandy. Nearly three years of planning, an armada of 5,000 ships, 156,000 men, and 11,000 aircraft converged on five beaches with code names that would enter history: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword. On Omaha Beach, everything went wrong. The DD tanks sank. The naval fire plan failed. The German defenses were intact. Men died in the surf before they reached the sand. On Utah, the current carried the boats onto a lightly defended stretch and Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt Jr. walked the beach under fire and declared they would start the war from right here. In the dark hours before dawn, paratroopers dropped scattered across the Cotentin peninsula and the fields of Caen, and small groups of men seized bridges and batteries that could have broken the landings. This is the story of D-Day: the planning, the deception, the weather crisis, the courage, the carnage, and the triumph. The Longest Day brings June 6, 1944 to life with the sweep of grand strategy and the intimacy of the individual soldier.
On the morning of June 6, 1944, the fate of the free world was loaded into landing craft and dropped into the surf off the coast of Normandy. Nearly three years of planning, an armada of 5,000 ships, 156,000 men, and 11,000 aircraft converged on five beaches with code names that would enter histo...