by Harold Baumgarten (Author)
A member of the 116th Infantry Regiment of the 29th Infantry Division, veteran Harold Hal Baumgarten gives his firsthand account of the June 6, 1944, landing on Dog Green sector of Omaha Beach. A multidecorated hero, Baumgarten was wounded five times before being evacuated. In 1991, he served as a consultant for the filming of the WWII movie Saving Private Ryan.
Front Jacket
"He is the real thing; I am just an actor."
--Tom Hanks, actor
Remarks regarding Dr. Harold Baumgarten
Opening of National World War II Museum, New Orleans
"His story is amazing."
--Dr. Stephen Ambrose, author and historian
"Dr. Harold Baumgarten is a national treasure. Besides possessing a photographic memory, he has the ability to rise above truly painful recollections and personal loss to record a story that few others at Bloody Omaha are even able to discuss."
--Paul DeGaeta, reporter, Sarasota Herald-Tribune
(Front flap)
On the morning of June 6, 1944, Dr. Harold Baumgarten landed in front of the Vierville draw at the Dog Green sector of Omaha Beach along with the 116th Infantry Regiment/29th Infantry Division. During one of the most famous battles ever fought by U.S. armed forces, Baumgarten was wounded five times in a thirty-two-hour period and barely survived. Any one of the pieces of shrapnel or bullets could have killed him; however, fierce tenacity to keep pushing ahead finally got him off that beach.
Baumgarten believes that his life was spared so that he could give a face to the brave young Americans who lost their lives that day. Determined to make his autobiography a testament to these men who gave this nation their ultimate sacrifice, Baumgarten ensures that the buddies he left lying face down on the bloody sands of Omaha Beach will never be forgotten.
(Back flap)
After the war, the multidecorated veteran received a bachelor's degree from New York University and a master's and medical doctorate from the University of Miami. Dr. Baumgarten is a renowned speaker and internationally recognized historian who has written several books on D-Day and whose story has been featured in nearly forty other books on the D-Day invasion.
Articles in People, U.S. News and World Report, USA Today, and various newspapers and magazines throughout the United States have referenced Dr. Baumgarten's experience. He was featured on National Public Radio's Morning Edition, interviewed by Tom Brokaw on NBC, and has made countless television appearances on CNN, CBS, the History Channel, and throughout France, Austria, and Germany. Dr. Baumgarten was a guest speaker at the opening of the National World War II Museum in New Orleans in June 2000. On December 5, 2005, he was awarded a Special Certificate of Congressional Recognition for his service in World War II, and on July 15, 2005, he received the Knight of the French Legion of Honor, France's highest award, bestowed by Pres. Jacques Chirac.
Back Jacket
"There was no way to anticipate the horrors of the holocaust that awaited us on the Dog Green sector." --Dr. Harold Baumgarten
Just as it was portrayed in the major motion pictures The Longest Day and Saving Private Ryan, the Dog Green sector of Omaha Beach was the smallest but most heavily defended part of Normandy Beach, only nine hundred yards long by three hundred yards wide at low tide. Considered an impregnable Atlantic wall, Omaha Beach was fortified by concrete walls, landmines, a twenty-five-foot seawall topped with mines and barbed wire, and a one-hundred-foot bluff.
It was the bravery and heroism of the 116th Infantry that made subsequent landings of the Twenty-ninth Division possible. In the face of heavy fire and despite suffering the loss of eight hundred men and officers, the 116th Infantry overcame beach obstacles, took the enemy-defended positions along the beach and cliffs, pushed through the mined area under heavy fire, and continued inshore to successfully accomplish their objective.
Dr. Harold Baumgarten, a multidecorated survivor, gives his eyewitness account of the first wave landing of the 116th Infantry on D-Day, June 6, 1944. As the spokesperson for soldiers who perished on the sand and bloody red waters of the Dog Green sector of Omaha Beach, Baumgarten feels it is his mission to make sure these men are never forgotten.