Every Man a Hero: A Memoir of D-Day, the First Wave at Omaha Beach, and a World at War

In this gripping memoir, the now-98-year-old Staff Sgt. Lambert, a U.S. army medic who was awarded Silver and Bronze Star medals and Purple Hearts, recounts his prewar life and his experiences at Omaha Beach, “the bloodiest of all the places the Allies landed on D-Day.” After a brief introduction to that battle, the story rewinds to Lambert’s upbringing on an Alabama farm during the Great Depression, his and his brother’s 1939 enlistment in the army, and being shipped off to England in 1942. A treasure trove of details about WWII military life follows: how the army and its battalions were organized, how medics were trained and how they handled malaria and trench foot, and how the soldiers reacted to encountering members of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps. Lambert was in Tunisia as Operation Vulcan unfolded in April 1943, in Sicily for Operation Husky that July, and in the Normandy landing on D-Day, where his back was broken saving soldiers. This tale is further enriched by descriptions of life on the home front (ration books, price controls, Victory Gardens). Told with both dramatic immediacy and charming folksy flourishes (“I like to tell people I’m older than Noah and the Flood, but that’s not true”), this excellent memoir stands out among this year’s crop of D-Day books. (May)