Eisenhower: A Soldier's Life

Superb study of the Allied Supreme Commander

Carlo D'Este is a superb historian of the Second World War. His previous books include Decision in Normandy, Bitter Victory: the battle for Sicily 1943, Fatal decision: Anzio and the battle for Rome, a biography of General Patton. Most recently he wrote Warlord, a study of Churchill from 1874 to 1945.

In this superb book, he tells the story of Eisenhower's life, his early years; how he chose a soldier's career; his experiences in World War One, between the wars, and in 1940-42 as the USA prepared for war; his role as the architect of cooperation; his education as a general in the Mediterranean campaigns of 1942-43; his role as Supreme Allied Commander of the liberation of Europe; and the hard struggle for victory, Normandy to the Elbe 1944-45.

The book's centre is Eisenhower's work from 1942 to 1945. In organising the Sicily's liberation from fascism, he rejected the 'penny-packet' tactics of a series of small landings spread over five days and 600 miles of coast. Instead, he backed Montgomery's plan, which rightly adhered to the vital principle of the concentration of force.

But in the Sicily campaign, as in the later Italian campaign, there was poor coordination of the ground, air and naval forces and no strategic goals were set. There was no 'higher-up grip', as Monty put it.

In the run-up to D-Day, Eisenhower insisted, rightly, that airpower on its own was not decisive, overriding the British and US air force chiefs, Harris and Spaatz. D'Este rightly calls D-Day 'history's greatest and most successful amphibious landing'. Stalin praised this brilliant operation, saying, "The history of warfare knows no other like undertaking." The 80 days of the Normandy campaign killed or wounded 200,000 Germans and captured another 200,000. D'Este writes of 'the stunning German defeat in Normandy'.

But the task grew harder as supply lines inevitably lengthened as the Allies reached Germany. D'Este points out that it was 'simply not militarily feasible' for the Anglo-American forces to take Berlin.

D'Este also gives us masterly pen-portraits of Churchill, Montgomery, Brooke, Marshall and Patton and assesses their roles in the victory over Nazism.

An Interesting Biography

The author does an excellent job of presenting a balanced view of General Eisenhower... my only regret is that the biography does not cover Ike's post-war life, including the presidency. It is an easy read.

The most 'readable' History I've Read!

For all my love of history I sometimes find the writing styles of historic others to be very dry. This book however put an end to my unfortuante streak of boredom. It is one of the best books that I have had the pleaseure of reading and I think that it is a staple in any Eisenhower research. It was one of the few books that actually let on what an enigma Eisenhower really was yet went into the depths of his mind anyway. There was a lot of observational conclusions drawn from this book which is good as they don't border on the grasping for straws that a lot of authors end up doing with such an elusive subject. As to the contradictions I find the observations you mentioned to be rather strange. Does the person who wrote that review read books with a red correction pen in hand? D'Este was merely presenting information from sources, not writing fiction. I hope that the author of the 'correction' review will learn to sit down and enjoy a book rather than looking for obscure facts and irrelevant contradictions.

Where was the editor?

An interesting, easy to read work. However due to the large number of typographical and chronological errors I found it somewhat frustrating. This is one my favorites,taken from page 240, and please tell me if I'm missing something here. "MacArthur's duties in the Philippines were more befitting a noble gentleman of leisure. He rarely came to work before 11:00 a.m. and usually departed for the day after a late lunch with his young son Arthur, and his second wife, Jean (nee Faircloth), a vivacious Tennesseean whom he had met and courted during the voyage to the Philippines in 1935. MacArthur's strange work hours put additional pressures on his staff, who could not leave until he did. During WWII, MacArthur followed the same practice. A longtime subordinate remembers that, when informed by a visiting civilian executive "that he was killing his staff with such long hours, General MacArthur simply replied, 'Do you know a better way for them to die?'" Doesn't sound like too long a day to me. Or try and figure this one out from a few pages later on 253. "Although Eisenhower was still under the control of the infantry branch, a friend in the AG's office could be extremely helpful. Eisenhower, Clark and T.J. Davis had a mutual friend and benefactor in James Ulio, then the adjutant general's executive officer. Not long after Eisenhower's visit to Fort Lewis, Clark kept his word and sought Ulio's intervention on behalf of Eisenhower. Another of Ulio's friends was his AG colleague, T.J. Davis, who had served MacArthur even longer than Eisenhower. Davis was anxious to escape Manila for a stateside assignment and wrote to Ulio on behalf of himself and Eisenhower." Who's on first? A good proofreader certainly would have helped.

Superb Biography Of Ike As A Soldier

There is certainly no shortage of biographies of Dwight David Eisenhower, but this particular effort written by Carlo D'Este concentrates brilliantly on a comprehensive coverage of Ike's military career as an officer, focusing much more than any of the other treatments of Ike's life on the amazing transformation Eisenhower made from being a staff officer to becoming the Supreme Allied Commander for the European Campaign. Indeed, Eisenhower was literally transformed from the doldrums of being a career Lt. Colonel to being a five star General in just over three years, based on his unusual organizational abilities and the occasion of the outbreak of WWII. This was done based on his long apprenticeship as a career officer, with a multitude of trying and difficult assignments, including one long-term tour as General Douglas MacArthur's aide and later his executive officer. Eisenhower's forte was his ability to organize and oversee a variety of complex assignments simultaneously, and his keen sense of bureaucratic gamesmanship. It was this set of capabilities that General of the Army George Marshall keyed in on and recognized as crucially important to whoever would command the prosecution of the war with the Allies in Europe, which both Marshall and Churchill understood would be a titanic effort, and one so complicated that no one short of a brilliant bureaucrat certainly would not be able to execute. In the midst of all this Sturm und Drang, Eisenhower had to learn the lessons of modern warfare, for he was neither a solid tactician nor a logistician. Through the crucible of both the African and Mediterranean campaigns Ike gained a better understanding of how to carry through the planning and the execution of the different phases of a campaign successfully. Still, this was no easy task. He was personally stretched to the limits of endurance, and was unable to sleep for weeks prior to the Normandy invasion. He suffered the hardships of long absences from his wife and family, and the rumors of an affair with his English jeep driver Kay Summersby ran rampant. Still, he held the coalition of quite different egos and often clashing personalities together extraordinarily well, forging uneasy alliances with Field Marshall Montgomery and with a host of other difficult people to smooth out the incredibly difficulty task of getting all of the aspects of the mammoth D-Day invasion plan working together. Yet beneath the calm and driven exterior was a literal volcano of emotion, for he was a mercurial type who demanded much of his subordinated, and who also drove himself quite as mercilessly. D'Este is highly critical of Eisenhower's performance in many ways, and shows how various blunders by Eisenhower both lengthened and extended the war. Yet no one can deny the titanic triumph Ike was largely responsible for in terms of making D-Day a success and for then determinedly stamping out the stubborn remnants of resistance in the long and difficult drive toward Berlin. We are treated to glimpses of Ike's sense of frustration in his refusal to sit down with the defeated German Generals due to their barbarous conduct during the war, and he (along with Winston Churchill) once advocated for the summary execution of all such captured senior officers before being outvoted by Roosevelt, who wanted a trial to showcase how civilized and judicious we would be in extending the rule of law even to those who had been deliberately lawless themselves. This is a wonderful book, and one I am sure you would benefit from reading. Enjoy!

A Decent Biography and Fascination look at the Allied Commanders of WWII

Eisenhower was never one of my favorite generals and this book didn't change my opinion, but it did give me a better understanding of the man and the tremendous problems he faced as the Allied Commander of the European Theater during World War II. I don't know why Roosevelt and Marshall picked Eisenhower for a job he wasn't qualified for. The British had little faith in him but accepted him because they figured they could manipulate him, and this proved to be true early in the war. But in the end, Eisenhower shouldered the responsibilities, made the tough decisions, dealt with the French, and got the job done. This book gives an honest insightful look at the men that ran the war, their strengths and weaknesses, and their triumphs and disasters. I found that D'Este's coverage of such luminaries as Montgomery, Patton, Bradley, and Alexander (to name but a few) a real education. This is a real eye-opener for those who thought the Allied Armies were the best trained, equipped, and led. This book led me to the conclusion that we won the war because we were better able to recover from our mistakes and replace our losses. This is a great read for World War II history buffs.

No text was provided for this review.