Library: D-Day

Saving Private Ryan | D-Day | Rangers | Airborne | Miscellaneous

DVD

D-Day in Color

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  • Studio: Wea Corp
  • Release Date: May 25, 2004
  • Number of Discs: 1
  • Catalog #: B000228EFE
  • Running Time: 218 minutes
  • Rating: NR
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3 standard
  • Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo

D-Day In Color takes an in-depth look at the events and experiences of the greatest seaborne invasion in history, focusing on the personal stories of those involved, including not only the men in combat, but also the families and friends anxiously awaiting news of their loved ones.

D-Day: The Total Story

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  • Studio: A&E Home Video
  • Release Date: April 27, 2004
  • Number of Discs: 2
  • Catalog #: B0001BPRQ0
  • Running Time: 370 minutes
  • Rating: NR
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3 standard
  • Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo

This three-part documentary from the History Channel recounts the invasion of Normandy by blending combat footage, interviews with the soldiers who fought the battle, and commentary from historians. The series covers the strategy, planning, and buildup, the Battle of D-Day, and the weeks of fighting after the landing that led to the Allied breakout and the liberation of France. While the documentary includes extensive combat footage, it's the interviews with both Allied and Axis soldiers that bring the battle to life for viewers.

D-Day: Reflections of Courage

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  • Studio: BBC
  • Release Date: November 2, 2004
  • Number of Discs: 1
  • Catalog #: B0002KQNM2
  • Running Time: 90 minutes
  • Rating: NR
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3 standard
  • Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo

D-Day: Reflections of Courage breathes life into the true stories of a day that defined a generation...the stories you know and those you've never heard before. Witness the complex and deadly secret war fought by the men and women of France and mainland Europe; experience the defense of the western front by the forces of the German Empire, and be there as Allied forces prepare and execute the invasion of Normandy. After twenty-four hours of bloodshed and heroism on June 6th, 1944, the tide of war turned and a new world was born. Discover the plans, the people, the courage and the sacrifice that led to that unforgettable day.

Ike: Countdown to D-Day

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  • Studio: Columbia Tristar
  • Release Date: August 31, 2004
  • Number of Discs: 1
  • Catalog #: B0002I833Q
  • Running Time: 90 minutes
  • Rating: PG
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3 standard
  • Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround

Tom Selleck gives a restrained yet powerful performance as General Dwight D. Eisenhower in Ike: Countdown to D-Day. This made-for-cable feature focuses on the solemn, brilliant but plain-speaking Ike as he fine-tunes, over 90 days, tactical and political concerns involved with the Allies' imminent D-Day invasion of Normandy, i.e., America and Britain's long-awaited joint assault against Nazi-occupied Europe.

Secrets of the Dead: D-Day

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  • Studio: PBS Home Video
  • Release Date: October 26, 2004
  • Number of Discs: 1
  • Catalog #: B00049QIWQ
  • Running Time: 120 minutes
  • Rating: NR
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3 standard
  • Sound: ?

In commemoration of the 60th anniversary of D-Day, this program is the story of how it all came together: two years of planning, close to 7,000 ships, almost 160,000 soldiers and fighting men from three nations, backed by 17,000 paratroopers and an aerial umbrella of 3,000 planes. The film shows step by step how the Allies achieved victory on June 6, 1944. Where the invaders failed, the film investigates how and why this happened.

BOOKS

Battleground Europe: Omaha Beach

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  • Author: Tim Kilvert-Jones
  • Publication Date: December 1, 1999
  • Publisher: Combined Publishing
  • Format: Softcover
  • Pages: 144
  • ISBN: 158097015X

Saving Private Ryan has brought home to a new generation just how harrowing the landing at Omaha Beach was on D-Day. Located in between the other American objective of Utah Beach and the British and Canadian beaches Sword, Gold and Juno, failure to secure Omaha Beach would have resulted in the failure of the entire invasion. Operational oversights and the fortunes of war left a larger number of German defenses intact on this crucial beach, making for the most difficult of all the battles on June 6, 1944. Americans on Omaha Beach sustained about 60% of all casualties on D-Day.

Cross-Channel Attack

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  • Author: Gordon A. Harrison
  • Publication Date: August 1, 2002
  • Publisher: University Press of the Pacific
  • Format: Softcover
  • Pages: 540
  • ISBN: 1410201635

This book deals with the planning and the difficulties encountered incident to the mounting of the largest amphibious assault ever undertaken in military history. Much of the information it contains has not heretofore been a matter of public knowledge. For example, light is for the first time thrown upon the enemy's conflicting theories of defense against Allied air superiority and upon his paucity of first-class troops. This information is derived from the official records of the Wehrmacht and from signed statements of German participants. Many of the difficulties encountered in the planning, as well as in the execution stage of the operation, are here described to the public for the first time.

D-Day: June 6, 1944

The Climatic Battle of World War II

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  • Author: Stephen E. Ambrose
  • Publication Date: June 1, 1995
  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 656
  • ISBN: 068480137X

Published to mark the 50th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy, Stephen E. Ambrose's D-Day: June 6, 1944 relies on over 1,400 interviews with veterans, as well as prodigious research in military archives on both sides of the Atlantic. He provides a comprehensive history of the invasion which also eloquently testifies as to how common soldiers performed extraordinary feats. A major theme of the book, upon which Ambrose would later expand in Citizen Soldiers, is how the soldiers from the democratic Allied nations rose to the occasion and outperformed German troops thought to be invincible. The many small stories that Ambrose collected from paratroopers, sailors, infantrymen, and civilians make the excitement, confusion, and sheer terror of D-day come alive on the page.

The D-Day Experience

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  • Author: Richard Holmes
  • Publication Date: April 1, 2004
  • Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
  • Format: Hardcover
  • Pages: 60
  • ISBN: 0740745093

Written by one of Britain's best-known and respected military historians, Professor Richard Holmes, and including a wealth of firsthand accounts, The D-Day Experience contains 30 facsimile items of D-Day memorabilia integrated into the pages of the book. The reader can relive this momentous period of 20th century history by holding and examining maps, diaries, letters, sketches, secret memos and reports, posters, and labels that up until now have remained filed or exhibited in the Imperial War Museum and other North American archives. In addition, the accompanying CD contains 60 minutes of firsthand veteran accounts from American, Canadian, and British troops.

Eyewitness D-Day

Firsthand Accounts from the Landing at Normandy to the Liberation of Paris

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  • Author: D.M. Giangreco with Kathryn Moore
  • Editor: Norman Polmar
  • Publication Date: May 11, 2004
  • Publisher: Sterling
  • Format: Hardcover
  • Pages: 260
  • ISBN: 0760750459

The Longest Day

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  • Author: Cornelius Ryan
  • Publication Date: May 1, 1994
  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster
  • Format: Softcover
  • Pages: 352
  • ISBN: 0671890913

A true classic of World War II history, The Longest Day tells the story of the massive Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. Journalist Cornelius Ryan began working on the book in the mid-1950s, while the memories of the D-day participants were still fresh, and he spent three years interviewing D-day survivors in the United States and Europe. Not only is The Longest Day a pleasure to read, but subsequent historians, dutifully noting its accuracy, have relied heavily on Ryan's research for their own accounts. In short, the book is a "must read" for anyone interested in the D-day invasion.

Omaha Beach

D-Day, June 6, 1944

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  • Author: Joseph Balkoski
  • Publication Date: March 1, 2004
  • Publisher: Stackpole Books
  • Format: Hardcover
  • Pages: 410
  • ISBN: 0811700798

Omaha Beach saw the greatest drama and loss of life on D-Day and was critically important to subsequent Allied total victory in World War II. In this gripping new book, historian Joseph Balkoski tells the story of June 6, 1944, when largely untested American troops assaulted the German army's Atlantic wall. Equal parts oral history and meticulous reconstruction, including the invasion's diplomatic and strategic context, Omaha Beach is the closest the modern reader can get to experiencing the Normandy landings firsthand.

Spearheading D-Day

American Special Units in Normandy

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  • Author: Jonathan Gawne
  • Publication Date: March 1, 1999
  • Publisher: Histoire & Collections
  • Format: Hardcover
  • Pages: 288
  • ISBN: 2908182793

Ever since he was taken to the Normandy Beaches in 1969, Jonathan Gawne has been studying the invasion. He is one of only a handful of historians who dig deep into the original records and interview veterans to deal with not the great strategic moves of the war, but the small nuts and bolts of how things worked on the squad and platoon level. Following his extensive list of publications in Militaria Magazine and G.I. Journal, he is considered by many to be one of the leading authorities on the development of U.S. Army uniforms and equipment.

Utah Beach

The Amphibious Landings and Airborne Operations on D-Day

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  • Author: Joseph Balkoski
  • Publication Date: August 10, 2005
  • Publisher: Stackpole Books
  • Format: Hardcover
  • Pages: 400
  • ISBN: 0811701441

In this much-anticipated follow-up to his acclaimed "Omaha Beach," historian Joseph Balkoski chronicles the amphibious landings and airborne operations at Utah Beach on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Using firsthand afteraction reports and unit journals, Balkoski creates a compelling narrative of the fighting at Utah Beach on D-Day, while meticulously constructed maps pinpoint key geographical features and show unit locations as the action unfolds. Although the assault on Utah Beach became one of the most successful American military operations of World War II, it was fraught with risk from the beginning: Not only was Utah the most isolated of the five D-Day beaches, but the airborne operation was of unprecedented size and scope. Despite the perils, American troops cascaded into that corner of Normandy from the sea and the sky, gaining a military triumph that contributed decisively to Allied success on D-Day.

Voices of Valor

D-Day, June 6, 1944

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  • Author: Douglas Brinkley and Ronald J. Drez
  • Publication Date: May 5, 2004
  • Publisher: Bulfinch
  • Format: Hardcover
  • Pages: 192
  • ISBN: 0821228897

Voices of Valor is an intimate and lasting tribute to the soldiers who fought in Normandy, featuring 40 interviews drawn from the archival holdings of the Eisenhower Center Oral history Project, the largest collection of oral histories of D-Day. Within the book are two hour-long audio CD's containing the oral testimonies of veterans who were at Normandy.