the quiet, flat bay was to Salerno. While
it was expected the attack would come at
Pas de Calais, the closest point in France
to England, the similarity to the site of the
last Allied invasion gave him pause, and
he ordered extra reinforcements for Oma-
ha Beach. The land today is still studded
with those reinforcements: six-foot thick
steel-reinforced concrete bunkers and ma-
chine-gun turrets, so impenetrable that
they remain virtually pristine today over 70
years later, their inhabitants driven out by
fire or explosions rather than the destruc-
tion of the defenses meant to protect them.
On a couple of occasions during the day,
Guillaume gives us time just to sit and think,
and the reflection is sobering. Someone
once asked me why I find this particular sto-
ry so compelling; if it's because my dad was
in the war. He participated in two invasions,
was on the front lines for six months, was
captured, imprisoned, and his POW train
blown off a bridge in the worst incident
of friendly fire in the Italian campaign. He
