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Hi, Will,

Thanks for posting. Wow — 15 items and still you liked the book! I don’t know if I should cry or be pleased!

The research I did involved various eyewitness accounts of landings on all 5 invasion beaches, “The Longest Day,” and an eyewitness account of a Grandad, now deceased, whose landing on Omaha Beach was on Day 2. You are obviously an expert on the subject, which I don’t claim to be — I was writing fiction, after all. But I would point out that not everyone drowned, because some really did make it to the beach, and actually moved up the beach. The invasion took 5 hours, but that means in its entirety. The ones who made it alive, as Jacob did, wouldn’t have taken the full 5 hours. Re: the grenade through the slit opening of a pillbox, the distance from the mound to home plate is just under 60 feet. But yes, you probably would have had to be Roger Clemens to pull it off! But machine guns were destroyed, and advances were made in spite of heavy losses.

If I changed anything, it was to get Jacob and his mates (minus poor Freddie) up the beach and into France so I could put them into the hedgerows! The book was written for middle grade kids, so I didn’t want it to get too detailed or too gory. Perhaps I soft-pedaled a bit because of that. My editors didn’t complain. I do wish, however, that I’d read your list of 15 items beforehand!

Thanks again, Will, for your commentary. Bet I was bang-on about the hedgerows!

                             Regards,                                                                                        —–Gordon Korman—–                                                                                  

Having said all that,