Joseph Balkoski – författare

Omaha Beach witnessed the greatest drama and loss of life on D-Day. Across a four-and-a-half-mile front consisting of sand, stones, and cliffs, largely untested American troops assaulted Germany’s Atlantic Wall head-on, encountering fierce resistance but eventually securing the beachhead. Their actions paved the way for Allied victory in World War II, yet until now, a truly comprehensive history of the momentous battle for Omaha Beach has not been written. In Omaha Beach: D-Day, June 6, 1944, Joseph Balkoski picks up where other historians left off and weaves personal recollections and historical analysis into a gripping, unforgettable narrative of one of the U.S. Army’s most costly days of World War II. After placing the D-Day preparations firmly within their diplomatic and strategic context—from Gen. George Marshall’s early enthusiasm for a Normandy landing to the Tehran conference, where Stalin’s support moved the plan into its final stages—Balkoski describes the minute-by-minute combat on Omaha Beach. Using a series of detailed maps to illustrate the progress of the invasion, as well as a broad selection of first-person accounts—many given mere weeks after the fighting—Balkoski crafts a seamless story of the action as it unfolded. He allows both officers and enlisted men to speak for themselves, as they vividly recount their attempts to maneuver bombers through heavy cloud cover, the claustrophobic terror of manning a tank aboard a landing vessel, and the relentless fire that greeted them as they inched their way across the beach. A concluding section recognizes Omaha’s Medal of Honor and Distinguished Service Cross recipients, some of them posthumous, and lists the minute details of the landings, such as the order of battle, unit-by-unit casualties, and the equipment the men carried. Equal parts oral history and meticulous reconstruction, Omaha Beach is the closest the modern reader can get to experiencing the Normandy landings firsthand. It is a fitting tribute to the veterans and an indispensable history of one of America’s—and, indeed, the world’s—most important days.Voted a top 5 book on D-Day in The Wall Street Journal, and a top 10 book on D-Day in USA Today.

Includes maps, photos, and firsthand accounts of participants: "There is no better book on this vital chapter in American history." —Terry Copp, author of Fields of Fire Combining the personal recollections of soldiers with historical narrative and analysis of the actual invasion as it unfolded, this detailed description of the action at Omaha Beach during the Normandy invasion of World War II comes from "the top living D-Day historian" (USA Today). "Anyone who wants to know anything about Omaha Beach, where the fighting was heaviest and bloodiest, must begin with this foundational book…The research is unparalleled and comprehensive enough to satisfy even the most skeptical scholar, yet the story is absorbing. The carnage of Omaha Beach comes to life with vivid contemporary descriptions from participants and witnesses, while the whole tale is deftly steered along by Balkoski''s steady narration and his sense of the battle''s larger significance. ''History can provide at least a little solace that there was some meaning to it all,'' he writes movingly. ''D-Day was the decisive chapter of a twentieth century Iliad.'' Indeed it was—and Balkoski is its Homer." —The Wall Street Journal "Balkoski makes officer and enlisted-men''s first-person testimony the center of this account." —Publishers Weekly "Intensely researched and definitive." —Army magazine "Balkoski''s depiction of ''Bloody Omaha'' is the literary accompaniment to the white-knuckle Omaha Beach scene that opens Steven Spielberg''s Saving Private Ryan." —The New York Post "The best D-Day-related book I have read." —Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Military historian Joseph Balkoski, named “the top living D-Day historian” by USA Today, continues his acclaimed history of the U.S. 29th Infantry Division in World War II with this book, which recounts the division’s vital role in the U.S. Army’s November 1944 offensive on the Western Front, which General Omar Bradley hoped would get the Allies to the Rhine River by Christmas. Focusing on the men who did the fighting, Balkoski blends meticulous research with masterful storytelling in this riveting story of heroism and tragedy, during which thousands of 29-ers became casualties in a campaign that ultimately failed to end the war by early 1945.

The story of the last few months of World War II in the European Theater as told from the perspective of a single U.S. Army unit, the 29th Infantry Division. This book describes the humanitarian crisis that erupted in central Europe as Nazi Germany collapsed, and relates the story of the repatriation of American war dead from western European cemeteries back home to the United States.

Expanded edition with a new chapter on the final battles of the Normandy campaign By 1945, the US Army had sixty-eight infantry divisions, forty-two of which fought in the great campaign in northwest Europe that began with the amphibious landings on D-Day and ended eleven months later with Germany's surrender. Beyond the Beachhead examines the experience of one infantry division-the 29th-during forty-five days of combat from Omaha Beach on D-Day to the liberation of St. Lô. Using interviews, official records, and unit histories and supplementing his narrative with meticulously detailed maps, Balkoski follows the 29th from the bloody landings at Omaha through the hedgerows of Normandy, illustrating the brutal realities of life on the front line.

Engaging history of a controversial World War II battle. Brilliantly researched and compellingly written by a top military historian.

Expanded edition with a new chapter on the final battles of the Normandy campaign.

"A first-class history, impeccably researched and skillfully written . . . by the foremost historian of the American D-Day experience." —Naval History Added to the invasion plan largely at the insistence of British General Bernard Montgomery, the attack at Utah Beach aimed to secure the Cotentin Peninsula and ultimately seize the port of Cherbourg. 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. With many never-before-published firsthand accounts from the men who were there; detailed maps providing minute-by-minute insight into the combat; photos; and comprehensive lists of all of Medal of Honor and Distinguished Service Cross recipients at Utah Beach, this book, a companion to the author''s Omaha Beach, is both an engaging narrative and a tribute to the men who stormed the beaches and dropped from the sky."Even the most seasoned historian will find something new in these pages." —Army magazine"[A] groundbreaking analysis of the other half of America''s D-Day." —Dennis Showalter, author of Patton and Rommel

Continues Balkoski''s acclaimed multivolume history of the U.S. 29th Infantry Division in World War II

Joseph Balkoski concludes his landmark series on the U.S. 29th Infantry Division in World War II with the story of the 29ers during the war''s final five months. Opening with the division''s participation in Operation Grenade, Balkoski follows the 29ers through the crossing of the Roer River, the blitzkrieg-style drive across the Rhineland to the Rhine River, their military-government duties while helping to reduce the Ruhr pocket, and the survivors'' return home.

In this unforgettable narrative of D-Day, Joseph Balkoski describes the minute-by-minute combat as it unfolded on Omaha Beach, allowing soldiers to speak for themselves as they recall their attempts to maneuver bombers through heavy cloud cover, the claustrophobic terror aboard transports, and the relentless fire that greeted them on the beach. Equal parts oral history and meticulous reconstruction, Omaha Beach is the closest the modern reader can get to experiencing the Normandy landings firsthand.

Although the assault on Utah Beach ultimately became one of the most successful military operations of World War II, its outcome was anything but certain. Not only was Utah the most isolated of the five D-Day beaches, but the airborne assault was of unprecedented size and complexity. Despite the perils, American troops confidently cascaded into that far corner of Normandy and contributed decisively to the Allied triumph on D-Day. With verve and authority, Balkoski describes how that victory was won.

In August 1944, after a brutal hedgerow campaign, the Allies broke out of Normandy and raced east toward Paris and the Seine. But Supreme Headquarters had other plans for the battle-hardened American 29th Infantry Division, which had landed at Omaha Beach on D-Day and fought fiercely for every inch of ground in Normandy. Along with the 2nd and 8th Infantry Divisions, the 29th was now ordered to turn west and seize the vital port of Brest in the far northwest corner of France. American commanders expected the operation to take a week. It would instead take almost four, as historian Joseph Balkoski recounts in this sequel to Beyond the Beachhead: The 29th Infantry Division in Normandy. The Germans had surrounded Brest with two defensive lines of ancient French forts, concrete pillboxes, underground dugouts, trenches, and mine fields. Manning those entrenched positions was the 2nd Parachute Division, a unit of fanatical paratroopers who preferred death to surrender. In a battle marked by frontal assaults on German strongpoints and hand-to-hand combat with rifles, hand grenades, and even bayonets, the 29th Division began its crawl toward Brest with an attack on August 25 and hammered the Germans day after day at places like Keriolet, La Trinité, Hill 103, and Fort Montbarey. Brest finally fell on September 18, 1944, at a cost to the 29th of more than 3,000 casualties. Heartbreakingly, the Allies had by then captured other ports, thus rendering Brest nearly useless and casting doubt on the decision to take it in the first place. But as Balkoski shows, the battle was more than a pointless sideshow. Even if the Allies could no longer use Brest as a port, the 29th Infantry Division had liberated a long-suffering city and killed or captured thousands of Germany’s finest troops--a worthy accomplishment for any unit.