Summary of Cornelius Ryan's The Longest Day

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Jun 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822543027

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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