Chapter 32 Summary and Analysis

"When Can Their Glory Fade?" takes its title from Tennyson's "The Charge of the Light Brigade," and serves as the book's epilogue. Unloading ends on all beaches at 2200. Nearly 175,000 Allied troops are ashore at a cost of 4,900 casualties. The front covers ninety kilometers, minus a few gaps the Germans cannot exploit. Rommel is right: the Allies can keep him from rushing resources to the beaches, while they can bring in all they need. The Allies penetrate a mere 2-10 kilometers inland but they are through the Atlantic Wall everywhere, which took four years to construct and holds in some cases only an hour. It is one of history's greatest blunders. The Allies' mistakes - sending airborne at night, using bomber and warship fleets ineffectively, and heavily emphasizing the need to crack the Atlantic Wall so that weary troops believe their job...