The Climactic Battle of World War II
The true story of D-Day is about the citizen soldiers taking the initiative to act on their own to break through Hitler’s Atlantic Wall. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was the Allied Expeditionary Force Supreme Commander, who led the soldiers to victory. Stiff German resistance resulted in nearly 10,000 Allied casualties, but the Germans were ultimately unable to repel the Allied forces. Although German resistance continued even after all five beachheads were taken, they had too few troops in the area to be effective.
Stephen E. Ambrose is a Boyd Professor of History at the University of New Orleans. He is the of author of Band of Brothers and Pegasus Bridge, as well a two-volume biography of Dwight D. Eisenhower. He lives in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Ambrose is the Director of the Eisenhower Center and President of the National D-day Museum in New Orleans. He was the military adviser in the movie Saving Private Ryan and was an executive producer on the television mini-series that was based on his book, Band of Brothers. The source he uses is based on information from paratroopers from the 101st Airborne in 1993. He also interview President Eisenhower about the battle on the Atlantic Wall in France. Based on information from American, British, and German veterans talk about the fear of war and the heart of battle.
At the end of May, the Allied Forces began loading weapons, tanks, and supplies into the ships that will take the soldiers to the beaches of Normandy, France. General Eisenhower gave a speech to the young soldiers, “Good Luck! And let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.” With that said, the soldiers were off to Ohma Beach to fight for freedom of man. The fighting was terrible, 4,900 men died that day and more than 2,000 were hit on Omaha. Pockets of enemy resistance still fought on.
