Days after Allied forces invaded France on D-Day, June 6, 1944, the American 90th Infantry Division found itself in trouble. The inexperienced division ran up against fierce German resistance in the marshes and impenetrable hedgerows beyond Utah Beach. Gains came slowly, if at all, and with punishing casualties. First one commander, then another, was fired. High command considered breaking up the division. Then, in July, the 90th turned itself around. Seasoned by weeks of war, new leaders stepped up; once uncertain soldiers became tenacious fighting men. It had taken a month, but they were now the Tough ’Ombres, on their way to becoming one of the finest American infantry divisions of World War II. This story of battlefield transformation – of redemption and ultimately victory – is told by Richard C. Anderson Jr. in this inspiring new military history.

Elements of the 90th landed on Utah Beach on D-Day, and once the entire division came ashore over the following days, it was given the vital assignment of attacking west to link up with the 82nd Airborne and secure the Cotentin Peninsula. Stymied by its lack of experience, crack German troops, terrain that was not properly planned for, and just plain bad luck, the 90th made slow, costly progress. Impatient for success, U.S. high command sacked a series of commanders. One replacement – the legendary Gen. Theodore Roosevelt Jr. – died of a heart attack before he could assume command. The situation was bleak.

Then, almost miraculously, the 90th turned into a different division.  As American forces drove south through Normandy’s maze of country roads and thick hedgerows, the 90th was assigned the task of clearing a hill and forest along one of the main southerly routes.  After a week of seesawing attacks and counterattacks, the division took Hill 122 and laid the groundwork for the Allied breakout from Normandy – at a cost of nearly 5,000 casualties in a gritty, determined battle that earned them the nickname Tough ’Ombres (from the unit’s T and O insignia, for its origins in Texas and Oklahoma). The 90th was on the advance for the next month as a war of attrition became one of movement:  Périers, Le Mans, and finally the Falaise Pocket, where the division helped seal the Germans’ road out of Normandy.

By the end of the war, the Tough ’Ombres would see more days of combat than any other American division in Europe. Its soldiers would receive 4 Medals of Honor, 85 Distinguished Service Crosses, 311 Silver Stars, 5,057 Bronze Stars, and 21,371 Purple Hearts. While earning five battle stars, the 90th suffered more than 27,000 casualties – nearly 200 percent.  At war’s end, Gen. George Patton told the division: “Sometimes I think you don’t know how good you are.  You are the best soldiers in the world.”  Anything but certain, this reputation was won at great cost – and it began with redemption in Normandy.
(Includes 89 B&W Photos and 21 Maps)