John C. McManus, The Dead and Those About to Die

I woke up at 6:30 and my newspaper wasn't here yet, so I laid in be and read John C. McManus's gripping account of the D-Day invasion, The Dead and Those About to Die: D-Day: The Big Red One at Omaha Beach.

He's also the author of The Americans at Normandy: The Summer of 1944 — The American War from the Normandy Beaches to Falaise, and The Deadly Brotherhood: The American Combat Soldier in World War II.

Tomorrow's the 72nd anniversary of the Normandy assault. The old-timers are quitting the scene. I recently looked up the remaining soldiers from the "Easy" Company from Band of Brothers, and just about all of them have passed away, including Major Richard Winters, who died in 2011.