Rating: 
Summary: Tour de Force
Review: Many books have been written on D-day but only a few book length treatments of Omaha Beach have been written. Combine this with the fact that very few photos or film footage of the action there survived and that the Army did a poor job of recording casualties for the day and most students of Overlord have a relatively murky picture of that place at best. Joseph Balkowski who earlier had written an excellent account of the 29th Infantry Division: Beyond The Beachead, has followed up with a real Tour de Force. From the Operational level down he does an excellent job of describing the terrain, the make up of the forces, the naval units both USN and Royal Navy, the German Defenses and finally the action. He uses oral history and reminisces as ways to highlight or emphasise his own prose. He also never fails to remind us of the Great Crusade aspect of this battle (Omaha Beach should be considered on the same plane as Gettysburg). The maps and charts are excellent. The only relative weakness is a somewhat simplified explanation of certain Strategic and Politcal factors involved which can be excused as they are not germane to the story. Although the prose and 'readibility' may not be along the lines of Ambrose or Atkinson anyone with more than a passing interest in Military History would find this book eminently enjoyable and informative. (For those looking for a very different treatment of the doctrinal and palnning aspects try Adrian Lewis's Omaha Beach). Balkoski's book should remain a definite first choice for the topic.
Rating:
Summary: Superb D-Day Book
Review: This is a well-researched D-Day book that tells the story of Omaha Beach, based on 1944 veteran interviews, some just days after the landings, and official Action Reports. Rather than relying primarily on veteran memories sixty years after the Normandy operation or leaving out special naval units in the spearhead of the attack, Joe Balkoski provides fascinating first-person accounts using a scholarly research style. On page 156, Balkoski describes the 6th Naval Beach Battalion, attached to the 5th Engineer Special Brigade. Their mission, according to a 1944 Army interview with Commander Eugene Carusi, USN, was to land with the assault troops and once ashore, "mark hazards to navigation, determine landing points, evacuate casualties, direct landing and retraction, control boat traffic, and maintain ship-to-shore communication...Cmdr. Carusi landed with the first platoon of Company C, 37th Engineer Combat Battalion from an LCT on the middle of Easy Red at H+65 [7:35 A.M.]." Company C of the 6th Naval Beach Battalion and the 37th Engineer Combat Battalion were Army-Navy elements of the 37th Battalion Beach Group, under the command of the 5th Engineer Special Brigade. Balkoski correctly states the mission - to support the 16th Regimental Combat Team of the 1st Infantry Division on the Easy Red sector of Omaha Beach. However, due to Navy censorship in 1944, some clarification might be helpful. Commander Eugene Carusi, an Annapolis "three-striper" and Washington, DC attorney, actually went ashore the Easy Red sector of Omaha Beach from the USCG-manned LCI(L) 88, not an LCT. Specifically, 39-year-old Carusi waded ashore with Beachmaster Joe Vaghi, Dr. Russ Davey, Coxswain Ed Marriott, Signalman Frank Hurley, Corpsman Andy Chmiel and the remainder of C-8 platoon of the 6th Naval Beach Battalion. In "Cross-Channel Trip," initially published in the 1, 8 and 15 July 1944 issues of The New Yorker magazine, war correspondent A.J. Liebling describes Cmdr. Carusi and Joe Vaghi's C-8 platoon disembarking the LCI(L) 88 port ramp and B Company - 37th Engineer Combat Battalion going down the starboard ramp at H+65 minutes on D-Day. Twenty-three-year-old Ensign Vaghi was first off the landing craft followed by Cmdr. Carusi and then the hydrographic, communications and medical section of C-8 platoon. Navy censors removed the actual number of the LCI(L) 88, descriptions of the casualties, Causi's name and the disastrous fate of USCG-manned LCI(L) 85 from Liebling's original 1944 manuscript. Platoon C-7 of Co. C, headed by Beachmaster Vince Perrin, disembarked from LCI(L) 89 while Beachmaster Karl Hein and surviving C-9 platoon members disembarked from LCI(L) 85 at 8:30 A.M. on D-Day. LCI(L) 85 took 25 direct hits and was later sunk. Among the numerous 6th Naval Beach Battalion casualties KIA aboard LCI(L) 85 were three of Cmdr. Carusi's junior officers. Later, a fourth USN beachmaster, James Allison, was killed on the Fox Red sector of Omaha Beach. Congratulations to the author on a book well done. "Omaha Beach: D-Day, June 6, 1944" is one of a handful of recent D-Day books that deserves five stars.
Rating:
Summary: Pulls no punches
Review: This is an excellent book on a battle that was indeed one of the bloodiest in our nation's history. Mr. Balkoski gives a first rate narrative of accounts along with detailed analysis. But what makes this book stand out and deliver the magnitude and horror of the battle is the way in which he sprinkles in actual witness accounts to correspond with actual events. The voices jump right at you and you can't help but wonder how it ever worked. We all know the outcome of the invasion, but reading witness accounts provides an almost fly on the wall aspect to the battle for omaha beach. Along with all this there are detailed maps and pictures that go along with the story and are not just thrown in for effect. A must read for anyone interested in WW2, but if not then still a moving story.
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