Our Finest Day: D-Day, June 6, 1944 - Hardcover

Bowden, Mark

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0811830500 ISBN 13: 9780811830508

Publisher: Chronicle Books, 2002

Synopsis

D-Day is one of the significant turning points in wartime history and was the largest single military operation ever launched. In Our Finest Day, best-selling author Mark Bowden reveals the human faces behind this brutal battle, using reproductions of original documents. Included in these pages are personal letters and poignant journal entries from soldiers, secret dispatches and pages from code books, and strategic battle plans and maps. These removable artifacts-from the collection of the National D-Day Museum in New Orleans-allow readers to hold a piece of history in their hands. Imagine holding a replica of the last letter written home by a soldier as he waited nervously for the attack to begin, or the message sent to Allied headquarters in England informing them that the beaches had been taken. From the commanders of Operation Overlord to the airborne troopers and resistance fighters, Our Finest Day introduces readers to the brave men who risked their lives and triumphed over Hitlers Germany.

About this title

About the Author:

Mark Bowden is a Pulitzer Prize finalist and the author of the best-selling Black Hawk Down. A staff writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer for 20 years, he lives in Pennsylvania.

Stephen E. Ambrose is a distinguished historian and the author of many best-selling books about World War II, including Band of Brothers and Citizen Soldiers. He lives in New Orleans.

Review:

Ever since Stephen Ambrose's D-Day stormed the best-seller lists in 1994, a wave of books on the subject has followed.
One of the latest, Our Finest Day: D-Day, June 6, 1944, offers something new: "removable artifacts," copies from the National D-Day Museum in New Orleans, that aim to put the battle right in readers' hands.
One page holds part of a pocket guide to France that was issued to all the troops - with reminders such as "You are a guest of France." A folder marked "top secret" holds the battle plan for an infantry division. A small piece of paper contains Gen. Dwight Eisenhower's famous "Orders of the Day" that told participants, "You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months."
The 30 pages are filled with photos. Author Mark Bowden, who also wrote Black Hawk Down, here gives a complete if cursory overview of the day that turned the tide of World War II.
Even with an introduction by Mr. Ambrose, the book would run the risk of adding up to a gimmick - were it not for its inclusion of blood-saturated first-person accounts from combatants, such as this one from Pvt. William Marshall:
"I could not avoid stepping over bodies as I ran down the beach...Bodies, strewn from the water's edge to the dune line, rested in every imaginable position and every condition of integrity. Some were isolated, others in groups. They represented every rank and grade from private to colonel, impressing the youthful mind that in death all were brought to the same level of earthly value."
More than any "removable artifact," such descriptions bring to life, the horrors of the battle - and remind readers why the nation honors those people who willingly endured it. -The Dallas Morning News

About this edition

• Publisher: Chronicle Books
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0811830500
• ISBN 13: 9780811830508
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32