Free Custom «“The Longest Day” by Cornelius Ryan» Essay Paper

The above-mentioned book, published in 1959, avails the occurrences of the first day of WWII, involving the invasion of Normandy. In this book, the author is keen to introduce Field Marshall Erwin Rommel who played a critical role in the war. In addition, Ryan avails various defenses that took place at that time such as machine gun nests, reinforced concrete bunkers that had coastal guns, minefields, pre-sited artillery, and mine tipped beach obstacles. According to the book, the invasion is depicted as a race against time, which means that it would have been difficult to invade the coast in case the allies waited for long. The book reveals the fact that the invasion was complicated, basing on various issues such as the number of men that provided back up and how huge the endeavor was. The book also provides the accounts regarding where the allied forces landed and five beaches, which include Utah and Omaha, Juno, Sword, and Gold located in Britain. A further detail regarding the landings abounds in the book. Notably, the book abounds military and people’s story, because it involves several interviews from participants located in different countries such as Germany, Britain, and France.

 

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The main objective of this essay is to provide a review of The Longest Day book.

The author commences with an account regarding the invasion, and this explores few days before the D-Day took place. Ryan (1994) is keen to introduce Field Marshall Erwin Rommel accredited for coining the phrase “The Longest Day”. The author describes Rommel as being behind the repulsion of the invasion against the “Atlantic Wall”. This abounds as a series of fortifications in an attempt to stop landing on the French coast by the sea. Ryan (1994) mentions that this French coast faces the Atlantic Ocean. Rommel gets credit for facilitating the plan regarding the Atlantic Wall as described by Ryan (1994). The book also mentions various defenses employed, which included minefields, barbed wire, machine gun nests, and tipped beach obstacles among others. The author also mentions the reason behind the sudden invasion, which abounds from the need to race against time to avoid difficulties in invading the coast.

The recount by Ryan (1994) reveals that 550, 000 men poured over the Normandy beaches after June 6^th. The hugeness of the endeavor is depicted from the total number of men poured over the Normandy beaches and the number of support staff backing up every combat troop. The author also goes to the extent of describing the problems encountered in facilitating the invasion, which is depicted as complicated.

Another area that the author scored is depicted from his discussion of the five landings, which depends on the accounts of people. The author’s use of people in explaining his recount acts as a proof regarding the whole story as the information provided tallies with other scholars’ opinion concerning the invasion. Some of the stories that are mentioned in the book and appear in other scholarly materials include “GI’s War” and the “Poker Game”.

In conclusion, the author weaves the stories together successfully to avail a solid narrative regarding the material date of the battle. The only flaw visible in the text is the lack of coherence and context as the author fails to indicate the reasons behind the success of the invasion. However, the author scores on the fact that he facilitates a reader to get acquainted with the soldiers that provide accounts regarding the war.

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From a close analysis of the work by Ryan, the author had availed a closer account of the invasion, which resulted from the fact that he employed first hand experiences of soldiers who were at the war to give their side of the story. The author also employed other researchers to facilitate the writing of his book as the people collecting the information had to travel far and wide in order to come up with the information used in the book. Thus, the author does not provide footnotes entirely, but makes references to the people that provided the information, which facilitated the completion of his story. According to history, it is indicated that researchers for Ryan’s work spent close to four years looking for survivors of the D-Day in order to get their first recounts regarding the invasion. Thus, this forced the researchers to seek survivors from different countries such as Great Britain, Germany, France, and the United States. The senior personnel involved in the invasion who aided the author include Richard Nelson Gale, Maxwell D. Taylor who was a general, Frederick E. Morgan (Lieutenant General), and James M. Garvin who was also a lieutenant general. Officers from Germany that aided the author include Franz Halder, Gunther Blumentritt, and Hellmuth Lang. From the book’s bibliography, it can be asserted that the author employed extensive research, because he also sought the help of War diaries, post action reports from Germany, official records, and histories.

Various reasons abound why I regard the sources used by the author as high quality. Firstly, the fact that the author employed first-hand accounts of the survivors means that the story has truth behind it. People who availed their accounts could not lie, and in case of any contradictions, the author could ascertain because he questioned several survivors. Secondly, the author used sources such as bibliographies and histories, which availed the true accounts of people involved in the invasion; moreover, some of the bibliographies were written from first hand experience. In addition, the sources employed by the author deserve credence because they are stored by governments, which means they hold a true account of what happened. For instance, the war diaries and post action reports from Germany are the sources used in the book.

In conclusion, The Longetst Day is a book written by Cornelius Ryan, which avails the occurrences on the first day of WWII involving the invasion of Normandy. From the book, the author commences by familiarizing a reader with Field Marshall Erwin Rommel who played a critical role in the war. The author describes Rommel as being behind the repulsion of the invasion against the “Atlantic Wall”. Ryan’s (1994) reveals that 550, 000 men poured over the Normandy beaches after June 6^th .The author depends on people’s accounts to describe the five landings that took place at different regions during the invasion. The author is also critical to mention how huge the endeavor was, and he remembers to note that many people, artillery, and armored vehicles were involved in the war. From that description, it abounds that coordinating the activity was a huge task for those involved. The author’s dependence on first-hand accounts regarding the invasion avails the notion that the author provided genuine information regarding the account. Several researches were done from far and wide in order to get the genuine information. The author also explores information availed by other sources such as war stories, reports of post action from Germany, bibliographies, and histories. These indicate the author’s commitment behind his work and add to the reason why a reader has to trust the accounts provided. Notably, the author’s account of the war matches with what abounds in other history books, which proves the truth behind the accounts provided by the author. That is why the book is a must read for a person anticipating to get first-hand experience regarding the invasion of Normandy.