Normandy to Berlin. Excellent as always by Ambrose

Here is author, Stephen Ambrose, at his best, utilizing extensive interviews of the actual Allied combatants involved in the battles leading to the liberation of Continental Europe in WWII. This time (in contrast to his other major WWII history, D-Day) there is an added dimension with the inclusion of stories of German combatants taken from interviews by Ambrose's son and the son of the German Panzer commander, Hans von Luck. We follow the progress of the war through the eyes of these individuals on both sides. Ambrose brings to the book all the wealth of his historical research background in giving the needed context for the individual accounts. A highly readable history. ( )

Citizen Soldiers opens on June 7, 1944, on the Normandy beaches, and ends on May 7, 1945. From the high command on down to the enlisted men, Stephen E. Ambrose draws on hundreds of interviews and oral histories from men on both sides who were there. He recreates the experiences of the individuals who fought the battles, the women who served, and the Germans who fought against us.

Ambrose reveals the learning process of a great army -- how to cross rivers, how to fight in snow or hedgerows, how to fight in cities, how to coordinate air and ground campaigns, how to fight in winter and on the defensive, how citizens become soldiers in the best army in the world.

A masterful biography of the U.S. Army in the European Theater of Operations, Citizen Soldiers provides a compelling account of the extraordinary stories of ordinary men in their fight for democracy.

3467. Citizen Soldiers: The U.S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany June 7, 1944 - May 7, 1945, by Stephen E. Ambrose (read Aug 4, 2001) This is Ambrose's sequel to his account of June 6, 1944, and tells the story through the end of the European War. It is the 8th book of Ambrose's I have read, and he always does a good job and the book covers its subject in better detail than I've read it before. I found this a really outstanding account, poignant in many instances. ( )