Over twenty years many veterans have helped me in my research on D-Day and the Battle of Normandy. They include Waldo Werft, Bob Slaughter, Fred Glover, Bob Sales, Dan Farley, John Raaen, Hal Baumgarten, John Barnes, Russell Pickett, Ray Nance, Jimmy Green, Roy Stevens, and Léon Gautier. Staff at the following institutions have provided invaluable information and images: the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, the First Division Museum at Cantigny, the Library of Congress, the National Archives in the United States, the Imperial War Museum in London, the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Virginia, the Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada Regimental Museum in Toronto, the Green Howards Regimental Museum in the United Kingdom, and the Mémorial de Caen in France. A huge thanks to Amy Squiers for transcribing many hours of interviews. John Snowdon provided amazing tips and company and photographs during several visits to Normandy. Sylvain Kast was a superb guide to the beaches. Michael Edwards sent many oral histories.
I’ve been very lucky to have had a highly skilled and supportive editor, Brent Howard, ably backed by his assistant, Cassidy Sachs. Thanks also to the production, marketing, and sales teams at Dutton. My agent, Jim Hornfischer, was as usual second to none. My wife, Robin, and son, Felix, were much missed on many trips to the places where the First Wave fought seventy-five years ago.