The Longest Day The Longest Day June 6, 1944 by Cornelius Ryan shows a pivotal point of World War II. The book persist of stories about the people involved in D-Day. From the men in Allied forces, the men they fought and any citizen who happened to get caught in the battle. The book is written from the perspectives of different camps, including, Americans, British, Canadians, Germans and French. This day Allied forces aimed at freeing France of Nazi occupation. The forces opened a European phase of World War II by gaining footholds on French shores. The attack happened early in the morning of June 6, 1944 where the five beaches were attacked: Gold, Sword, Juno, Omaha and Utah, and the cliffs of Pointe Du Hoc. This event saw around 90,000 British, …show more content…
Field Marshal Erwin Rommel was a German soldier. He held the job of commander in chief of Army Group B, the most powerful force in the German West. Rommel remained working and never got more than five hours of sleep, he also didn’t take many leaves. The leave that he wanted to take would be the first one he’s had in months. When Rommel took his leave he knew it was the right time because the weather stayed perfect the whole month and there had been no Allied attacks. The Germans knew the Russian attack on Poland wouldn’t come until thawing season, so they didn’t think anything would happen until late June. The weather in the west had been bad, so Rommel thought there was no chance that the attack would happen soon. Before Rommel’s leave, he writes letters to his wife with predictions about the Allied attack. Every letter he writes he has a different assumption to when the attack will come upon them. On April 6: “Here the tension is growing from day to day… It will probably only be weeks that separate us from the decisive events…” On May 6 “Still no signs of the British and Americans… Every day, every week… we get stronger… I am looking forward to the battle with confidence… perhaps it will come on May 15, perhaps at the end of the month (17). Rommel knew that D Day would happen, he just didn’t know the specific date. Rommel had ideas and strategies on how to deal with the attack, meet it