Citizen Soldiers: The U.S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany: June 7, 1944-May 7, 1945 (audiobook) by Stephen Ambrose

Beautifully told - in all of its splendor and horror

5 CDs
5 Hours
Also includes a tiny 6 panel map of the war zones.

Stephen Ambrose

Cotter Smith masterfully narrates a wonderful re-telling of Ambrose's favorite topic - the Western European theater of World War II. Citizen Soldiers would serve as a fantastic introduction to this topic, but also is told well enough that someone who has read it all before, like me, found it interesting, informative and entertaining.

Ambrose spices up the story with a lot of stories about regular soldiers at the front. We learn about the challenges, the humor, and the horrors of the fight. Some are soldiers you've never heard of, others are more famous such as Kurt Vonnegut ( Slaughterhouse-five ) and Jimmy Stewart ( Mr. Smith Goes to Washington ). Some stories make you laugh out loud, the Vonnegut Christmas story was so sad that I turned off the CD player and drove the rest of the way home in silence because it just didn't seem right to go on.

Highly recommended.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: Citizen Soldiers.

Reviewed on March 24, 2010.