World War II history and significance

¶ … Cornlius Ryan, one of the finest writers of the history of World War II, was born in Dublin in 192. He worked as a correspondent from 1941 to 1945 and covered stories of the battles in Europe for Reuters and the London Daily Telegraph and in the final months of the Pacific campaign.

The first book written, published in 1959, was The Longest Day, that sold four million copies in twenty -seven editions and later in 1962 a film was made on it. However, it is said that The Longest Day was originally published in 1959 and since then it ahs reprinted several times.

Furthermore, another book was published in 1966 The Last Battle, while in 1974, he finished his third book A Bridge Too Far, though at the same time he was undergoing treatment for cancer that killed him in 1976.

Moreover, he was the author was a native of Ireland who later became an Air Force pilot and war reporter covering the D-Day landings as well as the advance of General Patton's Third Army across France and Germany. He published books, plays, screenplays, magazine pieces, and radio and TV scripts.

Background and Overview of the Book

The Longest Day is a true classic of World War II history that narrates the story of the enormous Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. The author cum Journalist Cornelius Ryan started working on the book in the mid-1950s, while the memories of the D-day participants were still new, and so he spent three years interviewing D-day survivors in the United States and Europe. Thus, after first publishing in 1959, the book was extremely successful, and set up many of the legends of D-day that last in the reader's mind.

Ryan was extremely skilled and competent at merging small personal stories into a complete one narrative, which he used later the same technique in order to portray the airborne invasion of Holland in A Bridge Too Far. Its not only The Longest Day that is a pleasure to read, as subsequent historians, unquestioningly noted its correctness in the book, and rely not only on this book's research findings but also on his other books.

I was a good storyteller and this history book is hard to put down. Not much like the film, this book gives the reader a bigger picture of what happened in the hours that lead up to and during June 6, 1944. For instance, the readers may find that the Germans heavily defended the Dog Green Sector of Omaha Beach, however, some Allied troops that landed on close by beaches met barely any resistance at all. In short, the book is a must read for all those who have the interest in the D-day invasion.

Analysis of the Book

Cornelius Ryan's highly praised account of 6th June 1944, sold over ten million copies, which takes his readers from the arrangement of the world's greatest-ever amphibious landing up to its completion. The book gives interviews with survivors, ranging from the highest-ranking officers of both sides, including the airborne troops who opened the Battle of Normandy before dawn, while the poor bloody infantry who waded on shore against the destructed fire of the defending Germans to the defenders themselves.

Thus, the book The Longest Day captures the dismay as well as the splendor of D-Day. The author has narrated and described the individual, as well as collective acts of heroism along with the foul-ups and mistakes. He has detailed the shambles of Omaha Beach that was even touchingly portrayed and showed in Steven Spielberg's new movie Saving Private Ryan.

The author provided factual information and not based on any bias. He interviewed over 1,000 individuals who took part in the event on that day, and gave their personal experiences and perspective that together flawlessly leave his readers thoroughly absorbed. However, there were few stories of heroism, which those that took part has been considered just normal, but to the younger generations it does to some extent seem to be unreal making the book so fascinating.

Contrasting some authors of more recent, Ryan does not become entangled in regurgitation of numbers as for him the most vital aim was to get this story across in the world in forms of the words of those people who actually comprehended and recognized as to what happened that day where one of the great interest in the book as how the book concludes as well as the kind of jobs of those who were interviewed in 1959.

Through, this book, readers come to know as so many special and remarkable people had very ordinary jobs. However, their exploits can never be gone or forgotten as long as people read books such as this. His later writers for instance Steven Ambrose, rely very heavily on Ryan but failed to imprison the sheer scale of the exercise, and the range of experiences as well as the remarkable circumstances individuals found themselves in; at the same time still transmit the pure planned and premeditated sweep of the operation.

Fascinatingly a few recent authors claimed to be 'definitive' still did not credit Ryan in their sources, and drew their own conclusions. However, much of enjoyable is Ryan's enclosure of the various nationalities engaged on all sides. The reader actually gets a real image of the unbelievable common effort of troops who were ordinary people before and after the war and came from many countries allied against the Axis.

Thus, newly in print for the first time in years, the book is the classic story of the invasion of Normandy, as well as a book that last as a masterwork of living history. It gives a forceful story of bravery and valor, and at the same time blaze and calamity and disaster. Therefore, the book, The Longest Day thoroughly recreated the significant and critical hours that led and followed the huge attack of Normandy to retell.

Moreover, being a very highly recommended book, where most readers even those who have no interest in military or history books may find it not possible to put down, although the conclusion of the story is well-known since Cornelius Ryan brings astonishing simplicity and clearness to the multi-faceted D-Day operation, letting his readers to go through the events of June 6, 1944 from perspectives of many:

German perspective,

French perspective,

British perspective,

Canadian perspective, and American perspective

However, one of the weaknesses in the story of The Longest Day was prevaricate, and that it did not contain any maps, that would have been helpful for a geographically challenged readers.

The author thrust into details about each and everything involved with D-Day, and simply not just shooting and fighting such as he detailed the stories about newlyweds, families at home, then converted gamblers, and that too not just from one end but from both sides of the beach.

Thus, the book goes from top to bottom of the chain of command, then Supreme Commander to private soldier, giving all about their stories narrated in an impressive style, but another weakness was that they were not long winded. Such as, the reading flys by, and the reader will have to hang on to the book, or so it'll feel. However, it never gets slow, and moves from one page to another with a purpose that many books don't have.