{"product_id":"the-first-wave-the-dday-warriors-who-led-the-way-to-victory-in-world-war-ii-9780451490056","title":"The First Wave: The D-Day Warriors Who Led the Way to Victory in World War II","description":"\u003cp\u003eNATIONAL BESTSELLER  Alex Kershaw  author of The Longest Winter and The Liberator  returns with an utterly immersive  adrenaline-driven account of D-Day combat.  Meet the assaulters: pathfinders plunging from the black  coxswains plowing the whitecaps  bareknuckle Rangers scaling sheer rock . . . Fast-paced and up close  this is historys greatest story reinvigorated as only Alex Kershaw can.Adam Makos  New York Times bestselling author of Spearhead and A Higher Call  Beginning in the predawn darkness of June 6  1944  The First Wave follows the remarkable men who carried out D-Days most perilous missions. The charismatic  unforgettable cast includes the first American paratrooper to touch down on Normandy soil; the glider pilot who braved antiaircraft fire to crash-land mere yards from the vital Pegasus Bridge; the brothers who led their troops onto Juno Beach under withering fire; as well as a French commando  returning to his native land  who fought to destroy German strongholds on Sword Beach and beyond. Readers will experience the sheer grit of the Rangers who scaled Pointe du Hoc and the astonishing courage of the airborne soldiers who captured the Merville Gun Battery in the face of devastating enemy counterattacks. The first to fight when the stakes were highest and the odds longest  these men would determine the fate of the invasion of Hitlers fortress Europeand the very history of the twentieth century.  The result is an epic of close combat and extraordinary heroism. It is the capstone Alex Kershaws remarkable career  built on his close friendships with D-Day survivors and his intimate understanding of the Normandy battlefield. For the seventy-fifth anniversary  here is a fresh take on World War IIs longest day.  Praise for The First Wave:  Masterful... readers will feel the sting of the cold surf  smell the acrid cordite that hung in the air  and duck the zing of machine-gun bullets whizzing overhead. The First Wave is an absolute triumph.James M. Scott  bestselling author of Target Tokyo  These pages ooze with the unforgettable human drama of historys most consequential invasion.John C. McManus  author of The Dead and Those About to Die\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45646878343221,"sku":"ByrdShop_0451490053","price":27.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780451490056.jpg?v=1781679557","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-first-wave-the-dday-warriors-who-led-the-way-to-victory-in-world-war-ii-9780451490056","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}