Expanded edition with a new chapter on the final battles of the Normandy campaign.

Expanded edition with a new chapter on the final battles of the Normandy campaign By 1945, the US Army had sixty-eight infantry divisions, forty-two of which fought in the great campaign in northwest Europe that began with the amphibious landings on D-Day and ended eleven months later with Germany's surrender. Beyond the Beachhead examines the experience of one infantry division-the 29th-during forty-five days of combat from Omaha Beach on D-Day to the liberation of St. Lô. Using interviews, official records, and unit histories and supplementing his narrative with meticulously detailed maps, Balkoski follows the 29th from the bloody landings at Omaha through the hedgerows of Normandy, illustrating the brutal realities of life on the front line.

The attack on Utah Beach during the Normandy invasion was one of the most successful military operations ever undertaken, especially bearing in mind the complexities of such a massive air & seaborne assault. Joseph Balkoski describes the unfolding drama.

Balkoski's acclaimed multi-volume history of the U.S. 29th Infantry Division in World War II covers the division's vital role in the U.S. Army's November offensive, which Gen. Omar Bradley hoped would get the Allies to the Rhine River by Christmas. A riveting story of heroism and tragedy.

Engaging history of a controversial World War II battle. Brilliantly researched and compellingly written by a top military historian.

Balkoski's depiction of 'Bloody Omaha' is the literary accompaniment to the white-knuckle Omaha Beach scene that opens Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan. -- John Hillen, New York Post

In 1917, Fort Ord was established in the tiny subdivision of Seaside, California. Over the course of the 20th century, it held great national and military importance—a major launching point for World War II operations, the first base in the military to undergo complete integration, the West Coast's most important training base for draftees in the Vietnam War, a site of important civil rights movements—until its closure in the 1990s. Alongside it, the city of Seaside took form. Racial Beachhead offers the story of this city, shaped over the decades by military policies of racial integration in the context of the ideals of the American civil rights movement. Middle class blacks, together with other military families—black, white, Hispanic, and Asian—created a local politics of inclusion that continues to serve as a reminder that integration can work to change ideas about race. Though Seaside's relationship with the military makes it unique, at the same time the story of Seaside is part and parcel of the story of 20th century American town life. Its story contributes to the growing history of cities of color—those minority-majority places that are increasingly the face of urban America.