Interview with Historian Rick Atkinson

(HistoryNet) ... World War II didn’t start on Omaha Beach, and I recognized at some point there was a triptych to American involvement in the liberation of Europe. The first panel was North Africa, the second was Sicily and Italy, and the third and final panel was the decisive campaign in Central Europe. I also realized the story of World War II is bottomless, and we’ll never run out of things to write about. So I started thinking about the trilogy concept in 1995 and working on it full-time in 1999. Continued

Photo: Cook at an advanced base in the North African desert sits down to eat after the men have finished, 1943 (OWI).