Summary of Cornelius Ryan's The Longest Day

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 The village of La Roche-Guyon was occupied by German soldiers in June 1944. It was the most occupied village in all of occupied France. Every one of the 543 villagers was guarded by more than three German soldiers.
#2 Rommel was the commander of Army Group B, and he was waiting impatiently for six o’clock. At that time, he would breakfast with his staff and then depart for Germany.
#3 Rommel was going home. He had spent months waiting for the Allied invasion, and he was extremely tense. He had to leave France to get away from the stress of the situation.
#4 The report Rommel received every morning was always the same: the invasion front was quiet except for the nightly bombing of the Pas-de-Calais. It seemed clear to him that the Allies were going to invade at the Pas-de-Calais.

Sujets

• Histoire
• Segunda Guerra Mundial
• Military
• World War II
• History
• Seconde Guerre mondiale

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 03 juillet 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9798822543027
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on Cornelius Ryan's The Longest Day
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The village of La Roche-Guyon was occupied by German soldiers in June 1944. It was the most occupied village in all of occupied France. Every one of the 543 villagers was guarded by more than three German soldiers.

#2

Rommel was the commander of Army Group B, and he was waiting impatiently for six o’clock. At that time, he would breakfast with his staff and then depart for Germany.

#3

Rommel was going home. He had spent months waiting for the Allied invasion, and he was extremely tense. He had to leave France to get away from the stress of the situation.

#4

The report Rommel received every morning was always the same: the invasion front was quiet except for the nightly bombing of the Pas-de-Calais. It seemed clear to him that the Allies were going to invade at the Pas-de-Calais.

#5

Rommel was planning on leaving his headquarters to visit Hitler. He was confident that the invasion would not happen for several more weeks, and he had set a deadline for the completion of all anti-invasion obstacle programs.

#6

Between Rommel and Lang, an easy relationship existed. They had been constantly together for months. Rommel had taken advantage of every moment, driving at top speed to some distant part of his command. The field marshal had seen the Atlantic Wall for what it was: a figment of Hitler’s Wolkenkuckucksheim [cloud cuckoo land].

#7

Hitler’s generals wanted him to invade Britain, but he waited because he thought the British would sue for peace. The situation changed rapidly, and by the fall of 1941 he began talking about making Europe an impregnable fortress.

#8

By 1944, Hitler was forced to bolster his garrisons in the west with a strange conglomeration of replacements - old men and young boys, the remnants of divisions shattered on the Russian front, and even two Russian divisions composed of men who preferred fighting for the Nazis to remaining in prison camps.

#9

Rommel’s plan was to meet the invasion head on, and he had convinced Hitler to back him. He had ordered the construction of anti-invasion obstacles along the coast, which were simple but deadly.

#10

Rommel, the perfectionist, was not satisfied with the defenses at Normandy. He ordered mines placed all over the coast, and behind them, his troops waited in pillboxes and concrete bunkers.

#11

Rommel was fascinated by mines as a defensive weapon. He had a habit of pointing out areas where he wanted 1,000 mines placed. He was not interested in the porcelain china works at Sèvres, but in the waterproof casings for his sea mines.

#12

The heart of Meyer’s counterintelligence setup was a thirty-man radio interception crew who worked in shifts around the clock in a concrete bunker. They were able to pick up calls from radio transmitters in military-police jeeps in England more than a hundred miles away.

#13

The first line of the French poem Chanson d’Automne was decoded by the Germans, and it was delivered to the Fifteenth Army’s chief of staff, Major General Rudolf Hofmann. He immediately gave the alarm to alert the whole of the Fifteenth Army.

#14

The first part of the message was repeated on the night of June 3, and the AP flash regarding the Allied landings in France was picked up. The coming of the dawn and the continued peacefulness along the front proved Meyer right.

#15

Rommel’s trip on June 4 was perfect timing. It was his wife’s birthday, and he wanted to be with her on Tuesday, June 6, for her birthday. In England, General Dwight D. Eisenhower made a fateful decision: he postponed the Allied invasion by 24 hours because of unfavorable weather conditions.

#16

The captain of the Corry, Lieutenant Commander George D. Hoffman, was leading the escort ship that was protecting the convoy. He was immensely proud to be leading this magnificent convoy, but he knew that it was a sitting duck for the enemy.

#17

The turnabout message was received by the Corry. It was unbelievable: the whole convoy had been ordered back to England, no reason given. The mine sweepers ahead were now in danger of being spotted by the Germans.

#18

The song I Double Dare You was played for Allied troops waiting for the invasion of Normandy on June 5. The lyrics were changed to reflect the situation, and they confirmed Bennie’s worst fears.

#19

The Allied naval headquarters in Southwick House outside Portsmouth, England, was the scene of intense activity as the ships returned from the channel. The location of each convoy and nearly every other ship of the Allied fleet could be seen on the board. But two vessels were not shown: a pair of midget submarines.

#20

The five men in the X23 were the British vanguard. They were leading the way back to France for the thousands of their countrymen who would soon follow. They were prepared to risk enemy shellfire, but they were taking no chances on being rammed and sunk.

#21

The X23 was prepared to attack the German fleet. It was packed with equipment and crew members, and it was only five feet eight inches high, five feet wide, and eight feet long.