Includes bibliographical references and index.

Now illustrated with an extraordinary collection of over 125 photos, Stephen E. Ambroseś D-Day is the definitive history of World War IIś most pivotal battle, June 6, 1944, the day that changed the course of history. D-Day is the epic story of men at the most demanding moment of their lives, when the horrors, complexities, and triumphs of life are laid bare. Distinguished historian Stephen E. Ambrose portrays the faces of courage and heroism, fear and determinationẃhat Eisenhower called t́he fury of an aroused democracyt́́hat shaped the victory of the citizen soldiers whom Hitler had disparaged. Drawing on more than 1,400 interviews with American, British, Canadian, French, and German veterans, Ambrose reveals how the original plans for the invasion had to be abandoned, and how enlisted men and junior officers acted on their own initiative when they realized that nothing was as they were told it would be. The action begins at midnight, June 5/6, when the first British and American airborne troops jumped into France. It ends at midnight, June 6/7. Focusing on those pivotal twenty-four hours, the book moves from the level of Supreme Commander to that of a French child, from General Omar Bradley to an American paratrooper, from Field Marshal Montgomery to a German sergeant. Ambroseś D-Day is the most honored account of one of our historyś most important days.