Cornelius Ryan

"What I write about is not war but the courage of man."

"Through the scattering, thinning mist the horizon was magically filling with ships—ships of every size and description, ships that casually maneuvered back and forth as though they had been there for hours. There appeared to be thousands of them. It was a ghostly armada that somehow had appeared from nowhere. Pluskat stared in frozen disbelief, speechless, moved as he had never been before in his life. At that moment the world of the good soldier Pluskat began falling apart. He says in those first moments he knew, calmly and surely, that "this was the end for Germany." "Block," said Pluskat, "it’s the invasion. There must be ten thousand ships out there." Block said, "What way are these ships heading?" Pluskat, phone in hand, looked out the aperture of the bunker and reported, "Right for me."