Ryan breaks his book down into three parts: "The Wait," "The Night," and "The Day." The first part details the day or two before the invasion, during which the tense Allies finally decided that the sixth and not the fifth would be D-Day and during which things worsened for an already unprepared German army (such as Rommel's departure from the front for a visit home). After something of an anti-climax on June 5, when the landings were pushed back a day, events accelerate rapidly. After midnight on June 6 ("The Night"), paratroopers land behind the beaches. The Germans were surprised, but the Allied effort was confused and scattered since many paratroopers missed their drop zones by as much as miles.
Dawn brings even greater surprise to the German leadership in France, most of whom believed the invasion would come at Calais, when they spy the massive invasion force with its thousands of vessels off the coast at Normandy. Americans land in the west at Utah and Omaha, while British and Canadian forces land at Sword, Juno, and Gold in the east. Classic episodes ensue at Utah, where resistance is light and troops under Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., move inland to meet up with airborne soldiers. Much bloodier combat took place on Omaha, where many Americans fell. Omar Bradley was on the verge of pulling back from Omaha and re-directing troops to Utah when men of the 1st and 29th Divisions finally gained a foothold and began to break down the Germans' fortified positions and pillboxes. Meanwhile, to the east, British troops are led into battle by bagpipes and achieve successes.
Portrayed mostly through the eyes of the troops, Ryan's account is gripping, engaging, exciting. For the most part, he follows the American-British-Canadian offensive, but he also gives attention to the German defenders (including a particularly interesting account of a company inside a pillbox). Ryan captures the confusion on both sides and conveys that things soon fell into place for the Allies while the Germans seemed to fall into greater and greater disarray. It would be a long fight--another eleven months--until Germany fell, but that struggle began on the Normandy coast on June 6, 1944: the longest day.
Taking its title from a quote by German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel - "Believe me, Lang, the first twenty-four hours of the invasion will be decisive...the fate of Germany depends on its outcome...for the Allies, as well as Germany, it will be the longest day." - Ryan's book deals with the Normandy landings. Based on hundreds of interviews with Allied, German, and French participants, for many years The Longest Day was the best of the many books written about what Stephen E. Ambrose once called the climactic battle of World War II.
Ryan divides his book into three parts: The Wait, which tells how the Allies and the Germans prepared for the invasion; The Night, which describes the confusion and complications of the nighttime airborne assault; and The Day, which, of course, takes readers onto the five invasion beaches, where so many acts of bravery and so many horrific scenes took place. Ryan skillfully lets the accounts of the veterans from both warring sides blend into his crisp and clear prose, grabbing the reader's attention and never letting go.
The Longest Day was followed by many other works on the topic of D-Day by such authors as David Howarth, John Keegan, Paul Carell ("the German Cornelius Ryan"), Max Hastings, and, of course, the late Stephen Ambrose. It was also abridged in several issues of Readers' Digest (which lent its support in research and interviewing participants), and was adapted into a major motion picture by Darryl F. Zanuck and 20th Century Fox in 1962.
What really struck me is that Mr. Ryan wrote it so soon after the war (first published in 1959) and yet there isn't a note of triumphalism in the whole thing or a note of bragging as victors are sometimes wont to do. He is wonderfully objective and whatever biases he may have had, he subordinates to the story. He also never engages in what each side should have done as many historians do.
While this was written and published prior to the revelation of Ultra and the Enigma codes, it fails to diminish the book's power and readability.
If you want a good primer on D-Day what it felt like, then this is the best book to start.
