Synopses & Reviews
Four cassettes, 6 hrs.
performances by Ron McLarty and cast
Historian Patrick K. O'Donnell, the founder of the award-winning Web site The Drop Zone (www.thedropzone.org) draws from over 600 interviews with veterans to weave together the full personal account of WWII's elite troops and tell the combat history of the war in the men's own words. The book covers the entire European theatre, from North Africa to Normandy to Germany. Through these eyewitness accounts, listeners experience the infamous fighting on Omaha Beach, in the Hurtgen Forest, and at the Battle of the Bulge.These intensely personal stories are often horrific tales of best friends killed, of whole units decimated, and of the madness of wartime atrocities. Given a rare chance to speak out soldiers have unburdened themselves of fifty years' pent-up emotion. The result is both shocking and moving."BEYOND VALOR is a great war book...It reminds us that wars are fought by men on the ground, not in the war rooms of highest headquarters."—John S. D. Eisenhower, author of The Bitter Woods: The Battle of the Bulge
About the Author
PATRICK K. O'DONNELL is a pioneer of internet-based "oral history" and the creator of THE DROP ZONE, a virtual community for WWII veterans and the interested public. The Drop Zone has won praise from newspapers including USA Today, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and The Los Angeles Times. O'Donnell has consulted with Steven Spielberg on a historically accurate, documentary-style mini-series about Normandy to be aired sometime in 2001. He lives in Fairfax Station, Virginia.