The man "who writes about the war better than almost anyone in our century" ( The Washington Post Book World) here details how the armies of six nations met on the battlefields of Normandy in what was to be the greatest allied achievement of World War II.

Tells the story of the Allied invasion of Normandy and shows how each of the armies mirrored its own nation's values.

The Allied assault on Normandy beaches was an almost flawless success, but it was to take three months of bitter fighting before the German defence of Normandy finally collapsed and Paris was liberated. In this masterly and highly individual account of that struggle, the reader is subjected to the grueling ordeals confronted by the combatants – each encounter related from the point of view of a different nationality. In this way we learn precisely what it was like to take part in the American airborne landings, move up the Canadian beachhead under a blistering hail of fire, attack on foot across country with Scottish infantry, engage the enemy from a British tank, move into the German counter-attack at Morain, close the Falaise Pocket under Polish command, and liberate Paris as a Free Frenchman. Six Armies in Normandytranscends conventional military history while providing an intensely vivid picture of one of the Second World War’s most crucial campaigns.

Here, for the first time in paperback, is an outstanding military history that offers a dramatic new perspective on the Allied campaign that began with the invasion of the D-Day beaches of Normandy. Nationa advertising in Military History.

From Stephen E. Ambrose, bestselling author of Band of Brothers and D-Day, the inspiring story of the ordinary men of the U.S. army in northwest Europe from the day after D-Day until the end of the bitterest days of World War II. In this riveting account, historian Stephen E. Ambrose continues where he left off in his #1 bestseller D-Day. Citizen Soldiers opens at 0001 hours, June 7, 1944, on the Normandy beaches, and ends at 0245 hours, May 7, 1945, with the allied victory. It is biography of the US Army in the European Theater of Operations, and Ambrose again follows the individual characters of this noble, brutal, and tragic war. From the high command down to the ordinary soldier, Ambrose draws on hundreds of interviews to re-create the war experience with startling clarity and immediacy. From the hedgerows of Normandy to the overrunning of Germany, Ambrose tells the real story of World War II from the perspective of the men and women who fought it.

Expanded edition with a new chapter on the final battles of the Normandy campaign.