At H-Hour on D-Day-June 6, 1944-the 4th Infantry Division landed on Utah Beach, becoming the first Allied division to land on the shores of Normandy, France. For the next eleven months, the 4ID fought across France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany until the war in Europe ended on May 8, 1945. The division suffered over 30,000 casualties-killed and wounded. This book, the first of a three-book series, tells the history of the 4th Infantry Division in WWII through the stories of those who fought the battles. Volume I of this two-volume series covers: The D-Day landing The fight to liberate the port of Cherbourg The hedgerow fighting through June and July 1944 Operation Cobra and the St. Lo breakout on July 25, 1944 The continuing fight that culminated with the liberation of Paris on August 25, 1944. Volume II continues the story with: The breaching of the Siegfried Line on September 11, 1944 The bloodiest fight of the division's history in the Hurtgen Forest Holding the southern shoulder of the Battle of the Bulge The fight back through the Siegfried Line, Prum, across the Rhine, and continuing the fight until V-E day on May 8, 1945. Volume III covers the 4ID in Vietnam from 1966 to 1970. These three books are subsets of War Stories: Utah Beach to Pleiku, first published in 2001.

With most of the eligible boys in the Army and few to date, Helen (Kogel)Denton joined the Women's Army Corps (WAC). As secretary to the post commander, Helen immediately raised her hand to volunteer when a telegram came in asking for a person to join GEN Dwight Eisenhower's staff in England. Assigned a top secret assignment that she did not talk about for 50 years, Helen spent many days in early 1944 in a closed room, typing the orders for Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy, France, known as D-Day. Helen covers her experiences as a soldier and a member of the "Greatest Generation." Read on to learn about Helen's experiences dodging V-2 boms in London, meeting her future husband after she waded ashore on Utah Beach in July 1944, and her experiences as one of the first WACs to enter and work in a liberated Paris. Still going strong at 90, Helen's experiences since her retirement from Delta Airlines, working as a volunteer with the Red Cross, the Federation of Women's Clubs, the Collie Club of America, the VFW, and many other organizations, is a roadmap for those preparing their own journey into their retirement years.