High Ground on Omaha Beach
Now available to non-subscribers of The Atlantic in time for the 63rd anniversary, is a D-Day account called “First Wave at Omaha Beach” by Sam “SLAM” Marshall, a veteran and historian. The article was originally published in 1960 and is one of the most vivid and intense accounts of the beach assaults you’ll ever read. Early on Marshall makes claim that Cornelius Ryan’s The Longest Day actually “misses the essence of the Omaha story”, which seems unlikely to anyone who’s ever read Ryan’s classic.
I don’t remember how I stumbled on Marshall’s article, but I Googled him and learned that in later years his reputation has been marred by others in the army who challenge his statements (especially the “ratio of fire” study), calling him everything from a hoax artist, a serial exaggerator and a writer of “historical fiction”. Kevan A. Elsby even issued a press release about discrepancies about the essay above.
It’s now countless the number of times a basic Google search has deflated my enthusiasm for something. Case in point: Ron Paul, in his own words.
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