Rating: 
Summary: The Longest Day
Review: I have seen the longest day and read the book. Obviously I am going to say I enjoyed the book more then the movie but I think they go hand in hand. The book is add suspense while the movie seems a little less serious and tries to add comic relief. Also the book is very detailed while the movie just brushes over a some accounts. I liked this book becuase it was, or felt like a series of actual personal events from various soldiers. For the most part the book sounds like soldiers letters or daries put into a fairly accurate timeline with d-day. My favorite account would be the german officer that was so shocked by the landing he didn't notice his boots where on backwards until after the day had passed.
Rating: 
Summary: a classic indeed
Review: This is a fine, fine read that lives up to its reputation as the classic account of D-Day--and also as a truly riveting read. For a treatment of the strategy of which the Normandy landings were a part or for what came after (or, for that matter, before) June 6, 1944, you'll need to look elsewhere, for Ryan focuses on the sixth itself and discusses strategic elements virtually not at all (except for some tangential remarks on Germany's strategy for defending occupied France). But at the level of the soldier on the ground, in the thick of battle, this is great reading.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.
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