Includes maps, photos, and firsthand accounts of participants: "There is no better book on this vital chapter in American history." —Terry Copp, author of Fields of Fire Combining the personal recollections of soldiers with historical narrative and analysis of the actual invasion as it unfolded, this detailed description of the action at Omaha Beach during the Normandy invasion of World War II comes from "the top living D-Day historian" ( USA Today). "Anyone who wants to know anything about Omaha Beach, where the fighting was heaviest and bloodiest, must begin with this foundational book...The research is unparalleled and comprehensive enough to satisfy even the most skeptical scholar, yet the story is absorbing. The carnage of Omaha Beach comes to life with vivid contemporary descriptions from participants and witnesses, while the whole tale is deftly steered along by Balkoski's steady narration and his sense of the battle's larger significance. 'History can provide at least a little solace that there was some meaning to it all,' he writes movingly. 'D-Day was the decisive chapter of a twentieth century Iliad.' Indeed it was—and Balkoski is its Homer." — The Wall Street Journal "Balkoski makes officer and enlisted-men's first-person testimony the center of this account." — Publishers Weekly "Intensely researched and definitive." — Army magazine "Balkoski's depiction of 'Bloody Omaha' is the literary accompaniment to the white-knuckle Omaha Beach scene that opens Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan." — The New York Post "The best D-Day-related book I have read." — Pittsburgh Post-Gazette