“Searing, stoic, and sardonic firsthand accounts, along with photographs, letters, maps, and artifacts, record the drastic realities of D-Day, the massive and “audacious Allied invasion” of German-occupied France on June 6, 1944, by air, sea, and land. Many of the testimonies and images in this extraordinarily vital volume have never been seen publicly before, and all are drawn from the invaluable collection of the National WWII Museum in New Orleans. Following Tom Brokaw’s powerful foreword, founding museum president Mueller provides the dramatic narration detailing each phase of operations. American pilots, paratroopers, sailors, soldiers, medics, nurses, engineers, a combat photographer, and more recount their harrowing experiences in sections devoted to the assaults against Utah Beach, Omaha Beach (“hell on earth”), and the daunting 100-foot-high cliffs at Pointe du Hoc. There’s no forgetting the testimonies of parachutist Robert Williams, Jewish private Harold Baumgarten, eloquent high-school English teacher turned navy lieutenant Howard Vander Beek, and William Dabney, an African American corporal. This superbly illustrated work of military and oral history is both a defining introduction and a vivid refresher to D-Day.” — Booklist