"In this major and wholly original contribution to military history, John Keegan reverses the usual convention of writing about war in terms of generals and nations in conflict, which tends to leave the common soldier as cipher. Instead, he focuses on what a set battle is like for the man in the thick of it-his fears, his wounds and their treatment, the mechanics of being taken prisoner, the nature of leadership at the most junior level, the role of compulsion in getting men to stand their ground, the intrusions of cruelty and compassion, the din and blood.
Set battles, with their unities of time and place, may be a thing of the past, but this anatomy of what they were like for the men who fought them is an unforgettable mirror held up to human nature."
"In burnished, driving prose, John Keegan chronicles the 1944 invasion of Normandy, from D-day to the liberation of Paris. At the same time, he furthers his exploration of the 'role which warfare and its institutions play in social life' by showing how each of the six armies, while resembling one another in purpose and authority, is a mirror of its own nation's values. Each army is shown at successive stages of the invasion in a battle sequence testing them to the utmost: the Americans in their terrifying night drop on the eve of landings, the Canadians at the Omaha beachhead, the English savagely fighting their way inland, the Germans in their surprisingly strong resistance, the Poles in exile desperately blocking the German escape route, and the French at last liberating their City of Light. This extraordinary book is a shining addition to the dramatic literature of men at war."
