A tough Jewish kid from the Bronx, Dan Altman enlisted in the Army when the U.S. entered World War II. Adapting street smarts to soldiering, he became a skilled sharpshooter and attained the rank of sergeant in the 1st Infantry Division.

On D-Day, Altman's unit was among the second wave to the assault the German defenses at Normandy. Surviving the invasion, the fighting in the lethal hedgerow country and the Hurtgen Forest, and the Battle of the Bulge, he was later assigned to gather information on Nazi atrocities for the trials at Nuremburg. Beginning with his plunge into the blood-tinged surf at Omaha Beach, his candid, often graphic memoir is presented here as told to his granddaughter.