World War II Database

The Normandy invasion had always held a special place in the minds of Americans. Though the scale of the fighting was small in comparison to battles raging on the Eastern Front and battles to be fought in Western Europe in the upcoming months, the risky landing operation would establish a small toehold from which place the final Anglo-American drive on Berlin would begin. Voices of Valor by Douglas Brinkley and Ronald Drez came with a richly illustrated book that provided a good, if somewhat cursory, narrative of the battle. The two audio CDs that came with the book, however, were the main reason why I had checked it out from the local library. Different from most of the audio books that I had reviewed previously, which almost always featured accomplished voice actors, the audio companion to Voices of Valor contained reminiscences of veterans told by the veterans themselves. Admittedly some of the audio recording quality was less than perfect, presumbly because some were taped some years ago while others done at the comfort of a livingroom rather than a professional sound studio. Looking beyond these imperfections, these powerful personal testimonies of airmen, soldiers, sailors, and commandos formed a great complement to the study of the actual history of the Normandy invasion.