"I had a Frenchman with me. He was a Canadian. And we got along pretty good, the pair of us. And he could talk the old language."
The nights were soft, almost warm, within sound of the breakers along the coast if the cicadas ever shut up. "We rolled up in a couple of blankets in a field there, and about seven in the morning, he woke me and said, 'Breakfast?'
"I said, Where the hell are you going to get breakfast up here?
"'Come with me.'
"There was a big farmhouse, you could see the roof of it over in the woods. We rapped on the door, and this farmer came out, and Frenchie started talking."
The farmer was beside himself. "Oh, he greeted us with open arms. We walk in there, in that big old kitchen. He put big pitchers of milk on the table, his wife was cooking eggs, and big loaves of bread. We had a breakfast, I'm telling you!
"And he was telling us about the invasion."
On D-Day, the first Allied invasion forces that jammed their heels into French soil were American and British airborne troops, a mix of parachutists and glider-mounted infantry. They dropped inside enemy lines in the dark hours before dawn, to block German reserves from coming up and reinforcing the beaches.
"The farmer said, 'I don't know what woke me up, but I walked out, and I could see these round shapes coming down from the sky. I said to myself, This is the invasion.
"'I went back in the house, and about half an hour later, there's a rap on the door. I open the door, and there's this German lieutenant, and he's got about fifteen soldiers around him. And he wants to know if I've seen any American G.I.s. I told him no.
"'The Germans walked out of the yard here, onto the street, and they no more than hit the street and a machine gun opened up and wiped them right out. They didn't have a chance to run or anything else.' Who was it? Two paratroopers."
I knew the punch line. Dad had told these blood-curdling tales since I was an infant. Still my arm hairs stiffened. "Wiped the whole fifteen of them right out."
But wait. There's more.
"One day, Frenchie and myself we were walking through this town, and all of a sudden this civilian came out, and he's yammering like mad.
"And I said to Frenchie, What's the matter? He says, 'There's a dead German up there in a barn. Come on, we'll take a look.'
"So we walk into the barn. Sure enough, there's a German soldier there with his throat cut. So pretty soon, along comes this paratrooper.
"We said, 'Dead German up in that barn there, with his throat cut.' He said, 'I know, I cut it this morning.' He was walking along like he was delivering papers. Sure. Nothing to it."
Review by Boston University Professor of Humanities, Robert Wexelblatt: "One of the most extraordinary autobiographies I've ever encountered. It is unimpeachably honest, insightful, intimate, touching.... An exceptional book."