Open University of Wellfleet
Maurice Isserman
September 30, October 7, 14, 21, 28
Monday, 4pm - 6pm
Wellfleet Adult Community Center, in person
2024 is the eightieth anniversary year of the Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944 (D-Day), as well as the subsequent liberation of Paris in August, the launching of Operation Market Garden in September, and the Battle of the Bulge in December, all of which proved stepping stones to the surrender of Nazi Germany and victory in Europe in May 1945. Before the few thousand remaining veterans of that consequential and heroic struggle pass away, it seems an appropriate moment to examine and commemorate their sacrifices in a five-weeks-long course devoted to the history of the American campaign to liberate Europe from Nazi oppression in the eleven months from D-Day to VE-Day.
Class sessions will combine short power-point presentations by the instructor with discussion of weekly assigned readings. Books assigned in the course include Rick Atkinson, The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945, Stephen Ambrose, Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest, J. Todd Moye, Freedom Flyers: The Tuskegee Airmen of World War II, and Maurice Isserman, The Winter Army: The World War II Odyssey of the 10th Mountain Division, America’s Elite Alpine Warriors.