The Steel Wave: A Novel of World War II

Jeff Shaara plunges his readers into the minds of the commanders who gave the orders, and the soldiers who carried them out with the rifle and bayonet.

Omar Bradley, the stoic and thoughtful American general, is responsible for the lives of every American soldier in the extraordinary operation. George Patton, the war's most outspoken and controversial figure, chafed noisily in England, impatiently waiting while others did the fighting. He served first as a simple decoy with a phantom army at his command, a brilliant deception to convince the Germans that Patton will in fact lead an invasion elsewhere. Once the Allied foothold is secure, Patton is finally turned loose, and energizes the historic breakout that drives the Germans in a chaotic retreat across France. Above it all is Dwight Eisenhower, "Ike", whose overall strategies and command decisions unite the American and British forces into an unstoppable fighting machine.

On the mainland, the German defenses along...