The Americans at D-Day by John C. McManus
I am enjoying this book as a well written, fluid read - which contrasts greatly with the previous book on Guadalcanal that read something on the order of a giant after-action report (but in a good way). Not particularly informative yet as I already knew much of the operational stuff covered so far, but one of the points of interest is that McManus uses Pvt. Webb as one of his sources, the same guy whose writings were partially used by Stephen Ambrose in “Band of Brothers.” Webb was a Harvard English lit major and later wrote professionally, including a seminal work on sharks. (It was this fascination that ultimately led to his death on the ocean.) A good overview, the book is actually part one of a volume and I guess the next work is to cover the fighting from the Hedge-row campaign and the breakout. I’ll post some passages later…