No Greater Sacrifice, No Greater Love: A Son's Journey to Normandy

by W.F. Carter, Terry Golway, Walter Ford Carter, et al.

Book Overview

The letters, excerpted here--from an American soldier who died at Normandy--are filled with candid, innocent, and at times wrenching expressions of love for family, the anguish and agony of war, and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1588341593
• ISBN13: 9781588341594
• Release Date: April 2004
• Publisher: Smithsonian Books (DC)
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 1.38 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Sincere, From the heart

I traveled with Walter Ford Carter and the Normandy Allies (www.normandyallies.org) of Rochester, NY to Normandie, France, in Summer 2004. I heard Walter's story of his father's WWII experiences in person and visited the field where his father died near St. Lo. I had read the story of Dr.Carter before this trip and was very touched by the human-ness and how Walter reconstructed his father's and mother's war years through love letters and documents. This is a worthwhile read of a personal WWII history. Furthermore, my father landed in the 5th Wave on D-Day. He died in 1995 and Walter inspired me to do some digging to fit the pieces together of my father's history with the 5th Engineering Brigade. Baby Boomers with veteran fathers and mothers will gain insight and understand the war years--and the silences kept by our parents over a horrific war. Read this book. You won't regret it.

A personal story of what sacrifice really means ...

The book is a personal story of a man trying to come to grips with who his family was and what sacrifice really means to those who are left behind to pick-up the pieces of their lives after the father/husband was killed in the 1944 Normandy campaign. Mr. Carter, one of the co-authors of the book and son of CPT Carter, successfully communicates who his father and mother were - whether those stories were done for their childhood days, young adult lives, CPT Cater's military experiences, and the later days leading to his mother's death. The sacrifice of the Carter family was not only the death of the father, but also those who were left behind. Sacrifice and love are threads that hold this story together. This is a very good read.

The Eternal Sadness of the burdened heart

Military history focuses on battles and campaigns in linear time stopping and starting around the time of the war. WW2 Memoirs cover in greater detail the lives of the particpants usually before and during the war but usually stop there or only give a brief postscript. This work is unusual because the author tells you up front the basic story and then unfolds it from there. The knowledge of Norval Carter's fate looms like a shadow over the story but nevertheless his death and his son's (the co-author)discovery of his father still will bring the tears when you get to those pages. This is a story about the meaning of courage, sacrifice and the meaning of being a father and husband. The story covers the events of the war and the buildup for D-day in enough detail that even someone with no knowledge or interest in military history will enjoy and understand this story. At a slim 199 pages it is a very quick read. I highly recommend this book for anyone.

A Great Book

This is a GREAT book. It combines a herioc father, a love story and the sacrifice one faces as a soldier. It is also a moving tribute to a father from a son who really didn't know his father well until he discovered letters in his mother's attic. WHAT A TREMENDOUS STORY! Thanks Walter Ford Carter for sharing it with us. BUY THIS BOOK - You won't regret it!