Continues the trilogy about WWII ( )

An enjoyable fictionalized account of the Normandy invasion of WWII. ( )

Good research and a quite compelling story. Shaara does a good job of capturing Eisenhower's key role of getting the best out of generally a bad lot of general officers among the Allied Commanders. Fortunately, there were "a few good men" supported by an incredible lot of citizen soldiers that made it work. Shaara aptly portrays several of them as the US Army evolved into a potent fighting force. Mistakes such as not closing the Falaise Gap will redound later in the Hurtgen Forest but we were moving ahead. ( )

I never studied a great deal about World War II, so much of what this book covers was very new to me. The characters in the book are real people (many having left personal journals or having been interviewed by the author) and so there is always the sense that nothing is being exaggerated and everything is described pretty much as it actually happened. The book covers the events that happened around D-Day, in June 1944, as the Allied troops struggled to gain a foothold in France. However, the story is told from the perspective of actual people, like General Eisenhower and other soldiers from the US and Britain, and Rommel and others from Germany, so it reads like a novel, not a history textbook. ( )

Author Jeff Shaara incorporates two real-life quotes in the early pages of his World War II novel, "The Steel Wave", that help set the tone for their respective country's approach, aims and well-known results:

"In war, there is no prize for runner-up."
U.S. General Omar Bradley

"We Germans have far greater and more urgent duty towards civilization to perform...WE, like the Japanese, can only fulfill it by the sword. War is a biological necessity."
Friedrich Von Bernhardi

"Steel Wave" is the second in Shaara's World War II trilogy and it excites me on two levels. The first is that it's simply good story-telling. The plots move steadily and the battle 'ambience' is three-dimensional. The second is that Shaara's successfully managed to blend narrative and real-world history. I feel more knowledge about the time period, and my horizons are broadened, without feeling the damning weight of a very dense period in time.

Shaara does a capable job of describing the vibes and aura of war and how it encapsulates an individual: the smells, the sites, the emotions. The fictional Jesse Adams, a paratrooper who's dropped behind the German lines on D-Day, and who made his first wartime jump in Shaara's 'The Rising Tide', is about to step into the airplane that will introduce he and his unit to this phase of World War II: "Across the field, the engines began to fire, a growing roar, and he put a hand out against the cold metal of the plane, and put his foot on the bottom step of the ladder. The engines had filled every space in his brain, no room for voices, for music or fears. He looked up, high overhead, and realized the sky had filled with stars. He stared for a brief moment -- cold perfection, vast emptiness -- then took another breath, touched the Thompson (machine gun) again, and pressed one hand against the reserve chute on his chest, and climbed up into the plane."

D-Day is the center-point of the plot that provides focus for "The Steel Wave". The invasion at Omaha beach is told through the eyes of grunts on the ground (on both sides of the lines). The staccato narrative builds an undeniable tension, and evokes what can only be imagined for those of us who've never experienced something like it.

Shaara has an eye for the resource management conflicts that must face any scaled wartime effort, and the personalities and relationships that often drive decision making. World War II had a full slate of big personalities, ranging from the overstated arrogance of Britain's General Montgomery to the brashly outspoken U.S. General Patton. Many of these personality 'difficulties' drive smaller elements of the stories' plot, but Shaara certainly conveys that unique individuals and their respective relationships gave General Eisenhower more than a few tightropes to walk.

Through the stress and very real life-threatening fear that pervades the wartime experience, Shaara expresses how many soldiers could simply 'let go' even when given the chance. In an exchange with one of his men while recuperating in England, following 30 straight days in the field starting on D-Day, Adams discusses what's next:
Unger nodded again. "Awful darned quiet in that barracks." He paused. "You think they''ll send us to France again? I really wanna go back, Sarge. I think I miss it."
Adams absorbed the words, saw the dark in Unger's eyes. 'That's it, kid. You miss it. So do I."

Shaara's characterizations are not the strength of the book, but the plot and the seamlessly interwoven history and story-telling is was makes "Steel Wave" a terrific and edifying read. ( )