No Greater Sacrifice, No Greater Love: A Son's Journey to Normandy [Hardcover]

Carter Wf (Author), Walter Ford Carter (Author), Terry Golway (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 17, 2004

A powerful account of a World War II hero and his son's life-changing discovery.

Walter Ford Carter grew up knowing little about his father except that as a battalion surgeon with the 29th Division, he died in France eleven days after his D day landing on Omaha Beach while running to help another soldier. For half a century, his mother never spoke of her husband—her sweetheart since childhood—or of the depth of her grief. On her death in 1995, Carter finds his life transformed on discovering a journal and some 150 letters his father had written to his wife and young sons in the months, weeks, and days before his death. The letters, excerpted here, are filled with candid, innocent, and at times wrenching expressions of love for family, the anguish and agony of war, and unshakeable faith in a country's noble cause—something almost unimaginable in our time. This is also the story of a son's midlife discovery as he learns of the extraordinary love his parents shared and finally begins to know the father he never had. His journey leads him to the man his father reached out to help so many years ago, and together they travel to Normandy to find the place where his father, a man who truly personifies "the greatest generation," gave his life to help another. 25 b/w photographs.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Teaming up with author Golway (So Others Might Live), former corporate economist Carter presents his reflections on the 150 letters that his father wrote home to his mother, his brother and himself before he was killed in combat, along with generous excerpts from the letters themselves. Along the way, he uncovers military, family and emotional history in equal measures and presents all with penetration.
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Review

A moving saga about the Greatest Generation -- P. X. Kelley, General, U. S. Marine Corps, Retired; Chairman, American Battle Monuments Commission

A poignant, moving story of a hero's wartime sacrifice and the family he left behind....a fine tribute. -- Senator Bob Dole

A powerful story of love and loss and discovery, a moving tribute to a family's devotion. -- Thomas Childers, author of In the Shadows of War and Wings of Morning

A very moving tribute to his father, to his mother, and to their abiding love for each other. -- Emma Sweeney, author of As Always, Jack: A Wartime Love Story

An extraordinary book, brilliantly conceived and masterfully written. -- George McGovern

An extraordinary personal account of one of America's 'citizen soldiers'....a celebration of the American Spirit that prevailed in WWII. -- Dr. Gordon "Nick" Mueller, President, The National D-Day Museum, New Orleans

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Smithsonian (April 17, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1588341593
• ISBN-13: 978-1588341594
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,902,668 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Eternal Sadness of the burdened heart, July 25, 2004

By 

Tim Brophy "Tim Brophy" (West Henrietta, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: No Greater Sacrifice, No Greater Love: A Son's Journey to Normandy (Hardcover)

Military history focuses on battles and campaigns in linear time stopping and starting around the time of the war. WW2 Memoirs cover in greater detail the lives of the particpants usually before and during the war but usually stop there or only give a brief postscript. This work is unusual because the author tells you up front the basic story and then unfolds it from there. The knowledge of Norval Carter's fate looms like a shadow over the story but nevertheless his death and his son's (the co-author)discovery of his father still will bring the tears when you get to those pages. This is a story about the meaning of courage, sacrifice and the meaning of being a father and husband. The story covers the events of the war and the buildup for D-day in enough detail that even someone with no knowledge or interest in military history will enjoy and understand this story. At a slim 199 pages it is a very quick read. I highly recommend this book for anyone.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sincere, From the heart, August 30, 2005

By 

Donna C. Coulson (Red Bank, NJ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: No Greater Sacrifice, No Greater Love: A Son's Journey to Normandy (Hardcover)

I traveled with Walter Ford Carter and the Normandy Allies (www.normandyallies.org) of Rochester, NY to Normandie, France, in Summer 2004. I heard Walter's story of his father's WWII experiences in person and visited the field where his father died near St. Lo. I had read the story of Dr.Carter before this trip and was very touched by the human-ness and how Walter reconstructed his father's and mother's war years through love letters and documents. This is a worthwhile read of a personal WWII history.

Furthermore, my father landed in the 5th Wave on D-Day. He died in 1995 and Walter inspired me to do some digging to fit the pieces together of my father's history with the 5th Engineering Brigade. Baby Boomers with veteran fathers and mothers will gain insight and understand the war years--and the silences kept by our parents over a horrific war.

Read this book. You won't regret it.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A personal story of what sacrifice really means ..., November 1, 2004

By 

Antonious Block (Fort Worth, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: No Greater Sacrifice, No Greater Love: A Son's Journey to Normandy (Hardcover)

The book is a personal story of a man trying to come to grips with who his family was and what sacrifice really means to those who are left behind to pick-up the pieces of their lives after the father/husband was killed in the 1944 Normandy campaign. Mr. Carter, one of the co-authors of the book and son of CPT Carter, successfully communicates who his father and mother were - whether those stories were done for their childhood days, young adult lives, CPT Cater's military experiences, and the later days leading to his mother's death. The sacrifice of the Carter family was not only the death of the father, but also those who were left behind. Sacrifice and love are threads that hold this story together. This is a very good read.