Significant Events In The Book Allies By Alan Gratz

Allies by Alan Gratz Research Paper

There are many significant topics within the book Allies, and this paper will discuss a few of them such as a significant event in the story and why it's important, as well as an important setting of the story and why it is considered important. And lastly an issue that occurred during the story and why it is an issue, and also how that issue might be addressed in today's world. The very significant event of the whole story is that it is during WWII, but that is too vague, so more specifically in the story is D-Day and the invasion of Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944. As stated by the author, “The Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944 - commonly referred to as D-Day - was, and still is, the largest seaborne

It is important because it is where Dee, Sid, Bill, and Henry land when first arriving to fight in D-Day and where most of the fighting took place. Omaha Beach is a very important place in real life because it is where the 1st and 29th infantry divisions landed on June 6, 1944, and where the most casualties on D-Day took place, as stated “On the morning of June 6, 1944, two U.S. infantry divisions, the 1st and the 29th, landed on Omaha Beach, the second to the west of the five landing beaches of D-Day. It was the bloodiest fighting of the morning” (Kenny Chmielewski). Consisting of around 4,500 allied soldier deaths, and an estimated 4,000 - 9,000 German deaths. As stated by the author “By the end of the day on June 6, 1944, an estimated 4,500 Allied soldiers would be dead, and more than 10,000 would be wounded - a majority of them American, with German losses for the day ranging anywhere between 4,000 - 9,000 dead” (Gratz 310). Although there were many deaths on D-Day, it was a very important victory for the Allies, as it allowed them control of the Beaches of Normandy, France, and allowed the allies to further push the Nazi’s back toward

Would Sid care that they had run away to America so Dee wouldn’t be brainwashed to hate everyone who wasn’t a ‘pure’ German? That Dee had been in America for almost his whole life, so long that he had lost any trace of his German accent?” (Gratz 18). Although it wouldn’t really seem like a major issue since Dee is helping the Americans, When Dee finally tells his friend Sid and the others in his division about him being a German, they get really mad at him, and try to figure out if he is a German spy or not. But near the ending of the story Dee proves himself by sacrificing himself to save his team by getting closer to a German tank to be able to throw a bomb at it and blow it up, Dee gets shot in the process but he did it and allowed his team to fight back and come and rescue him. Another sort of related issue in the story is the racism that Henry, who is a black field medic, and his team of other black men get while in the army. Even to the point where many white soldiers refused treatment because of the medic being black. Although there was segregation, on D-Day everyone was fighting the same war, as said “The African Americans served in a United States military that separated people