The people who write official histories for the Army believe that a generation needs to pass before you can tackle the official history. It's useful to have some distance. Sources become available. Passions cool. It allows an opportunity to make some real assessments and judgments about personalities and characters.
Rick AtkinsonThere were almost 11,000 American soldiers killed in Germany in April of 1945, the last full month of the war. Thats almost as many as died in June, 1944. Right to the very end, it was absolutely brutal.
Rick AtkinsonGlobal war is a clash of systems, not just battalions biffing one another in some godforsaken forest.
Rick AtkinsonThere is something within our biological structure that screams out and says it is morally wrong for the old to outlive the young. This is one of the times when God doesnโt seem to make sense. This is the worst that life gets.
Rick Atkinson