THIS BOOK is about the citizen soldiers of the U.S. Army and U.S.Army Air Forces in the European Theater of Operations in World War II. It is not a comprehensive history of the campaign in North-west Europe that began on D-Day and ended with Germany's surrender eleven months later. Although it includes some material on strategy, especially on the Eisenhower-Montgomery relationship and the Bradley-Patton-Hodges,Montgomery competition--enough, I hope, to keep the reader abreast of the big picture--it is not a book about the generals. It is about the GIs, the junior officers and enlisted men of ETO---who they were, how they fought, why they fought, what they endured, how they triumphed...

From June 7, 1944, on the beaches of Normandy to the final battles of Germany: acclaimed historian Stephen E. Ambrose draws on hundreds of interviews and oral historie, from men on both sides to write a compelling and comprehensive portrait of the Citizen Soldiers who made up the U.S. Army.

Ambrose re-creates the experiences of the individuals who fought the battle, from high command--Eisenhower, Bradley, and Patton--on down to the enlisted men. Within thechronological story, there are chapters on medics, nurses, and doctors; on the quartermas-ters; on the replacements; on what it was like to spend a night on the front lines; on sad sacks, cowards, and criminals; on Christmas 1944; and on weapons of all kinds. In this engrossing history, 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, and how citizens become soldiers. Throughout, the perspective is that of the enlisted men and junior officers--and how decisions of the brass affected them.

Maps

Introduction and Acknowledgments

Prologue

PART ONE

THE BATTLE FOR FRANCE

1 EXPANDING THE BEACHHEAD,

  JUNE 7-3 0, 1 944

2 HEDGEROW FIGHTING,

  JULY 1-24,1944

3 BREAKOUT AND ENCIRCLEMENT,

  JULY 2 5-A uGUST 2 5, 1944

4 TO THE SIEGFRIED LINE,

AUGUST 26-SEVTEMBER 30, 1944

5 THE SIEGFRIED LINE,

OCTOBER 1944

PART TWO

AT THE GERMAN BORDER

6 METZ AND THE HURTGEN FOREST,

NOVEMBER I-DECEMBER 15, 1 944

7 THE ARDENNES,

DECEMBER 16-19, 1944

8 THE ARDENNES,

DECEMBER 20-23, 1944

9 THE HOLIDAY SEASON,

DECEMBER 24-31, 1944

PART THREE

LIFE IN ETO

10 NIGHT ON THE LINE

11 REPLACEMENTS AND REINFORCEMENTS,

FALL 1944

12 THE AIR WAR

13 MEDICS, NURSES, AND DOCTORS

14 JERKS, SAD SACKS, PROFITEERS, AND JIM CROW

15 PRISONERS OF WAR

PART FOUR

OVERRUNNING GERMANY

16 WINTER WAR,

JANUARY 1945

17 CLOSING TO THE RHINE,

 FEBRUARY I-MARCH 6, 1945

18 CROSSING THE RHINE,

 MARCH 7-3 I, 1945

19 VICTORY,

 APRIL 1-MAY 7, 1945

 EPILOGUE: THE GIs AND MODERN AMERICA

 AFTERWORD

 NOTES

 BIBLIOGRAPHY

 INDEX