Patrick K. O'Donnell

This is an ultimately well done history of the Rangers, an elite group of U.S. soldiers, who took on some of the toughest and most deadly missions of the invasion of Europe, starting with scaling massive cliffs under heavy fire on D-Day to go after a set of heavy artillery pieces that had command of the Normandy beaches. As the title makes clear, the book focuses on Company D, or Dog Company.

I actually started this book with a bit of trepidation, as the author is described on the inside back show more cover as a "combat historian, bestselling author and renowned leadership speaker." It was that third item that set raised my defenses a bit, as I feared I'd be reading a motivational tome rather than a good and accurate military history. There is a bit of ham-fisted writing, especially in the book's early going as the assembling and training of the group is described. The lessons of that training are described as seeping into the soldiers' "every bone and fiber," for example.

Once the men go to war on D-Day, however, that sort of rah rah bravado gets mostly left behind. O'Donnell clearly did a lot of research and conducted as many interviews with veterans of the company as he could, along with walking all of the battlefields. I don't want to give the wrong idea. The achievement of these men was truly impressive and, well, inspirational in many ways. And O'Donnell does not stint from intense, detail-filled descriptions of the moment by moment fears and horrors of combat, particularly the effects of trying to survive, physically and mentally, one prolonged and terrifying artillery barrage after another for days on end. I learned a lot. show less

It is one of those books that rely on a catchy title to draw people in... and then fails to deliver on it. It is the history of the units that would one day evolve into Seals - but calling them Seals is almost like calling the Wright brothers astronauts - the latter would not have existed without the first but the name is still not exactly correct.

If you ignore the name or do not take it too literally, it is actually a pretty readable story about the maritime units during the Second World show more War and the science and history that made them possible. But more than that, it is the story of a few men - the pioneers that risked their lives to help. And as with almost everyone in this war, none of them is a conventional hero or someone you would expect to be able to step up. And yet they do - against all odds, against the elements, sometimes against pure stupidity on all sides.

And time after time the chance seems to be on their side - near misses and extraordinary coincidences line up to make up the story of these men; and when you almost see things finally getting a bit more ordered and someone makes a mistake that looks so stupid and illogical that you wonder how people actually survived after that. Thankfully the other side was making at least as many mistakes as the good guys (even when the Italians had better equipment and understanding of the art of maritime and underwater combat).

Patrick K. O'Donnell had talked with a lot of those men that survived the war and had been a friend with some of them. A lot of the stories he tells are probably heard here for the first time. Because this book is not one cohesive story - it is more a string of happenings and glimpses. And as it is the story of the people, it covers their stories through prisons and camps, trips around the world and decision that change the world. It remains too shallow in places- I wish there was more depth to a lot of those stories - but it is an entertaining read for the most part.

If you expect a history book this is not for you - it is more a journalistic account than a historical research. Which does not mean that O'Donnell does not know what he is talking about - but he keeps it light. I wish he had gone deeper but even as it is, it ended up being a pretty readable book. show less

I picked this book up thinking it might be an interesting book to read - and it was. Until it wasn't. It started off light enough, with wacky ideas thrown out, and interesting characters. But than it got dark. Really really dark, as in torture, whole teams dying dying from both assassination and the elements - I couldn't read anymore of it - war is inhuman. And being tortured, or doing torture, leaves you inhuman. Ultimately, the men in this book are heroes. Their story needs to be told - show more but never forgot the cost, both in loss of lives, but also the toll it takes on the living.

As for the book itself. Its an odd one. I don't know how much of this history is known, but the book is written from narratives from the men and women who lived it. At times, its hard to follow and names are thrown out without context, but the story is written from interviews, years later, so its to be forgiven. show less

The first-ever full story of American sabotage operations in World War II, based on hundreds of revealing interviews.

The battles of World War II were won not only by the soldiers on the front lines, and not only by the generals and admirals, but also by the shadow warriors whose work is captured for the first time in Operatives, Spies, and Saboteurs. Thanks to the interviews and narrative skills of Patrick O'Donnell and to recent declassifications, an entire chapter of history can now be show more revealed. A hidden war—a war of espionage, intrigue, and sabotage—played out across the occupied territories of Europe, deep inside enemy lines. Supply lines were disrupted; crucial intelligence was obtained and relayed back to the Allies; resistance movements were organized. show less