When the Sea Came Alive
An Oral History of D-Day
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4.5 • 34 Ratings
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Absolutely gripping.” —The Washington Post • “A masterpiece of oral history…stirring, surprising, grim, joyous, moving, and always riveting.” —Evan Thomas
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Only Plane in the Sky and Pulitzer Prize finalist for Watergate comes the most complete and up-to-date account of D-Day—the largest seaborne invasion in history and the moment that secured the Allied victory in World War II—featuring hundreds of eyewitness accounts.
June 6, 1944—known to us all as D-Day—is one of history’s greatest and most unbelievable military triumphs. The surprise sunrise landing of more than 150,000 Allied troops on the beaches of occupied northern France is one of the most consequential days of the 20th century. Now, Pulitzer Prize finalist Garrett M. Graff, historian and author of The Only Plane in the Sky and Watergate, brings them all together in a one-of-a-kind, bestselling oral history that explores this seminal event in vivid, heart-pounding detail.
The story begins in the opening months of the 1940s, as the Germany army tightens its grip across Europe, seizing control of entire nations. The United States, who has resolved to remain neutral, is forced to enter the conflict after an unexpected attack by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor. For the second time in fifty years, the world is at war, with the stakes higher than they’ve ever been before. Then in 1943, Allied leaders Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill meet in Casablanca to discuss a new plan for victory: a coordinated invasion of occupied France, led by General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Failure is not an option. Over the next eighteen months, the large-scale action is organized, mobilizing soldiers across Europe by land, sea, and sky. And when the day comes, it is unlike anything the world has ever seen.
These moments and more are seen in real time. A visceral, page-turning drama told through the eyes of those who experienced them—from soldiers, nurses, pilots, children, neighbors, sailors, politicians, volunteers, photographers, reporters and so many more, When the Sea Came Alive “is the sort of book that is smart, inspiring, and powerful—and adds so much to our knowledge of what that day was like and its historic importance forever” (Chris Bohjalian)—an unforgettable, fitting tribute to the men and women of the Greatest Generation.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
In this outstanding oral history of World War II’s turning point, Garrett Graff amplifies the voices of the people who watched the world change on that fateful day. Through firsthand accounts, Graff walks us through the buildup to the D-Day invasion, the terrifying landings on the beaches of Normandy, and the subsequent push to take back Europe from the Nazis. Famous names—Churchill, Eisenhower, Hemingway—are sprinkled throughout, but the narrative belongs to the soldiers and sailors who were thrust into one of the biggest battles ever. And this isn’t all about the Americans, either. British, Canadian, and even German perspectives are represented too. These depictions by the people who lived through the chaos and carnage carry a visceral shock. Eight decades later, When the Sea Came Alive lets the men and women who experienced D-Day—before, during, and after—have the final say.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Pulitzer finalist Graff (Watergate) draws from more than 700 eyewitness accounts for this gripping and propulsive history of the D-Day invasion. The contributors range from teenage privates to heads of state and military commanders, from frogmen and signalmen to parachuting generals, all of whom were engaged in a "feat of unprecedented human audacity, a mission more... complex than anything ever seen." The interlaced first-person accounts—sometimes just a sentence or two—are connected by helpful narrative tissue and often reach back into the months and years before the invasion to provide context for the day's events, like the development of the Mulberry Plan—the building of secret portable harbors the Allies would float to Normandy—and Exercise Tiger, a landing rehearsal on a British beach that was attacked by a German flotilla, resulting in hundreds of casualties. Harrowing recollections from survivors of the first wave of landings ("If you moved, you were dead"; "Wherever possible I crawled around bodies") paired with descriptions of elite operations with narrow yet crucial goals—like the team of Rangers who practiced six months to scale a single cliff—add up to a panoramic view of an astonishingly intricate plan coming to fruition, undertaken by men and women with a clear sense of its momentousness. Readers will be spellbound.
