D-Day - Stephen E Ambrose.

I'm going to jump right in and say "don't bother".

I've had this book for a number of years now and had numerous attempts to read but got annoyed with it and gave up. Well, whilst on holiday, I put my rage issues aside and read it. I wish I hadn't.

Ambrose was a sycophant of the highest order. The way he sucked up to the US D-Day leadership was embarrassing for him and made me cringe when reading it. Not a good start.

Then he did the unforgivable. He insulted the troops of the British and Commonwealth armies. I'm sorry Mr Ambrose, but these people who you dreided for being bad soldiers were more 'man' than you could ever have been. The claims he made had no basis in fact and were just his (very biased) opinion. An opinion is a dangerous thing to have when one has a vehicle to push it into the collective public concious. Ambrose shows this very well. I don't normally disagree with people's opinions as they are just that - an opinion. In this case though, Ambrose is wrong. Dead wrong.

I'd like him to have met my Grandfather...

On the positive side, it does give some good details to the reader about timings and what not, but that's about it.

There are SO many better books out there about D-Day, buy them and not this.

AVOID!

 

To be fair to Ambrose, I don't think it was just his opinion. Perhaps this belongs in the 'History is written by the victors' thread, but the stall was set out in Eisenhower's Allied Expeditionary Force report and the flames fanned by Ingersoll; the rest is history.

As an antidote, there's always Balkoski's Omaha Beach for a fair and objective treatment of the Limeys.

 

I am not going to be overly popular for this, but having read numerous books by Ambrose (by necessity, I hasten to add) all I can say on the matter is that I'm glad he's dead, if only to prevent any more of his twisted views on history making their way to publication.

Now, where did I put my tin hat?

 

Pegasus Bridge anyone?

 

Pegasus Bridge anyone?
picked it up at a 2 for 1 sale last week. Should I bother with it?

 

picked it up at a 2 for 1 sale last week. Should I bother with it?

Got it on the cheap myself. Thought it was a good read. Bit short though, think i finished it in one sitting.

As for D-Day, I can see where Combover is coming from. I can remember the bit were he slags off the brits but I just cant find it now that i'm flicking throught it.

 

Ambrose is dead?

 

apparently so
Stephen Ambrose - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Ambrose was a late-comer to WWII military history (though he was Eisenhower's historian), and never really got much credit among the knowledgable. But he wrote stuff that the general public ate-up and he saw his meal ticket so he pushed out as much crap as he could in his later years, IMO.

Not sure of the order of release (I'll check later):
Pegasus Bridge
Band of Brothers
D-Day
Citizen Soldiers
(hey I got it right)

I do recall in one interview he stated that the Germans running out of ammunition was a significant factor in the American's getting off Omaha Beach. It's probably an off-the-cuff "sound bite" but IMV that statement comes closer to the truth than protrayed in SPR and as implied by other writers.

 

Hmmm it would seem from Wiki that he was a professional horseshit peddlar throughout most of his life. Wouldn't it be ironic if someone were to subvert history by altering his Wiki entry...not me though...oh no...

 

As an antidote, there's always Balkoski's Omaha Beach for a fair and objective treatment of the Limeys.

An excellent book also his Utah Beach, they blow the socks off Ambrose.

 

I was bought a copy of 'Band of Brothers' as a Christmas present, shortly after the series had screened. I'm afraid my opinion of the late Mr Ambrose was pretty much defined by a couple of parts of the book.

There was a description of E Coy personnel meeting a British unit in Holland post MG. The US troops were horrifed to be told that this particular British unit had given up firing at the enemy opposite, because said fire was always returned. Later on in the book, we come to the incident of the phantom patrol (not signals intelligence!) by E Coy, who after losing a casualty to his own grenade blast 'fake' a patrol behind enemy lines to keep Regt/Div content they are continuing aggressive patrolling.

Now the frustrated writer in me here screams for some recognition of the parallels between these two events. There's no hint of which British unit the US Paras met in Holland in late 1944, but the likelihood is it was an infantry unit, and that it had been in theatre for around six months (the location is around Driel for those with a good recall of who was where and when). During that time, is it not possible that the British commander had already come to the conclusion that his US equivalent does just a few months later; that some actions do simply waste the lives of your men, and the war can be won without them?

It certainly seems the late Mr Ambrose would make a good subject for a book himself, there has been some discussion recently on just how much access he even had to the former President Eisenhower while writing his book on him. I was told the same by someone in the States as mentioned above, that he moved into WW2 history without necessarily having a core understanding of it. Still, I've seen worse on History Channel I suppose...

 

I found very early on that Ambrose was not alone in his revising of the WW2 history to garner the big cheques from Hollywood - perhaps the worst were Chet Haskins and Ralph Ingersoll - both PR men for Bradley who - after the Bulge really tore into Monty for his interview afterwards - they really went far back to twist things around- Ambrose started his twisting after Carlo D'Este's account of the Sicily "do"- the only American writer I found to be honest was Clay in his autobiography of MacArthur - that usually gets me into trouble though...... even a Canadian writer I found - as did Gerry Chester - to be a fictional expert in his books on the Liri valley and the Gothic Line - thing they forget is that Gerry and I were actually there at the time - as were Ron - Niccar and a few more !
Cheers

 

Having seen almost nonstop action from Normandy onwards. It is an insult that authors are allowed to print books that are supposed to be factual. For seldom have I read books that can tell of the great6 bravery and fighting quality of the British.

The British infantry man was held in great respect by the Americans... having fought alongside the Americans and the Canadians. That I do know.

better to listen to Ron Tom and all the other Vets that contribute here.... For we have no axe to grind, nor money to make out of our postings.

I get regular invitations to publish......But have resisted so far as it does seem more important to use what I, and others know, in the memory of those that did not return..... But there, I am an old fashioned old Coot....
Besides the gates of hell was a very real place....... Even now, I still recall the warm foetid smell of human blood and the agony of the wounds..... They were real.....
Sapper

 

When I was in New Orleans earlier in the year I remember reading some newspaper articles with regards to Ambrose's relationship with Eisenhower. Apparently he didnt know him half as much as he made out. I think maybe he met him once.

 

The first two links on this page are quite interesting re: Ambrose. IIRC Dr Kevan Elsby is the son-in-law of Lt-Col Green who happened to be the RN LCA flotilla commander that landed A Coy 116 Inf Regt in front of Vierville on OMAHA.

'Slam' Marshall gets a bit more of a kicking further down the page.

 

You all come across as sounding bitter. Cheers, Marc

 

MLW -
Not bitter - although that is a typical response when the American's are brought to task for their all encompasing notion they alone won that war - what we complain about is the fact that the truth is much more interesting than the BS that people like Haskins and Ingersoll can come up with - for a few measly dollars from Hollywood - shame shame !

We are now seeing the same attitude in the gulf with BP's spill -it's all the fault of the British CEO - to-day the AMERICAN replacement CEO is saying that the spill isn't all that bad ! He is one of your lot - an honest one obviously !

Looks from here as if the American OIL Barons are winding your people up to force BP to sell out - FORGETTING their really big Oil spill in the North Sea with many BRITS killed - Torrey Canyon polluting Cornwall for years -- and other injustices - Bhopal anyone ?- Exxon Valdez ? -with NO compensation - or the usual 10 cents on the dollar - BP have stated consistently that they will clean up and pay for the damage - in full - BUT the American lawyers want to "clean up" first !
Cheers

 

You all come across as sounding bitter. Cheers, Marc

It's better than being called stout, I suppose.

Note that the USAAF Troop Carrier people weren't too enamoured of him, either.

 

You all come across as sounding bitter. Cheers, Marc

If by 'bitter' you mean upset that this 'man' can twist history so much that he insults the memory of all those lads of the British, Commonwealth and Free armies that fought and died for a just cause, then yeah, i'm bitter. Very bitter.

Ambrose should have gone to my village on Rememberance Sunday, or visited my high school. For an example, my high school was not very big when the Great War and the Second World War took place. There are 8 very large name plaques on the wall in the great hall - 3 for WW1, 5 for WW2. I'd like to have seen Ambrose tell those families that their sons were terrible soldiers and died because they didn't / couldn't fight.

I wonder how long he'd last?

By way of redressing the balance, when I re-enact, I can always do the memories of your country's soldiers a disgusting disservice the way Ambrose did mine...how does that make you feel?