A prep course for the month-long World Cup soccer tournament, a worldwide pheno

he eye over those acres of white memorials at Omaha Beach is first to cry and th

en to feel a surge of angry pacifism . No such blood purge of youth should ever 

happen . Yet when these men were alive and I in some sense was among them , I ca

n't remember that I ever once heard the view asserted that the war we were invol

ved in wasn't worth fighting . The soldiers of sea , land and air in World War I

I knew little of global politics or the dynamics of history , but one thing was 

firmly within their grasp . This was that you couldn't have a thing like Hitler 

rampaging in the world unchallenged even if it cost something to stand in the wa

y . One reason their parade formation in death shakes me up is that I 'm so prou

d of them for doing it . Another is that they missed so much of life . The gleam

ing purity of the symbols under which they lie stirs a memory in me that might s

eem bizarre or laughable to people too young to know how much the world has chan

ged since these departed left it . In their time , a youth of 18 or 20 who wasn'

t married at so young an age wasn't considered socially backward if he had no se

xual experience . It was what was expected of him . Young men among their peers 

were not embarrassed to speak of their virginal state and be it admitted , their

 eagerness to get rid of it . I honestly believe that the besetting fear of the 

younger servicemen of World War II was that they would die before they were init

iated into what for them was life 's most alluring mystery . The chaste look of 

the markers above the Normandy graves is a stabbing reminder of how many of them

 probably did . In the barracks life of World War II , spoken confidences would 

come out during an hour that was a favorite of the day . This was when the troop

s were in bed , the lights were out and the comfortable bull session would drows

ily go on with the voices one by one dropping out . After the day 's hard physic

al exertion , there was a transporting sweetness in the oncoming of sleep . I ho

pe sleep is like that on the heights above Omaha Beach .

 LOS ANGELES First he makes fun of your last name . Then he asks all manner of r

acy , personal questions . It 's just another morning for Howard Stern in the pu

rsuit of lively radio . But for this reporter , granted an `` exclusive intervie

w '' on the air , it was about as much fun as having a root canal . When Stern t

urns his quick wit and dirty mind your way , the natural instinct is to run for 

cover . Especially when the self-proclaimed `` king of all media '' regally dema

nds that his media subjects conduct interviews on his terms in this case live , 

on the air and at an ungodly pre-dawn hour ( because of the time difference betw

een here and New York , where he broadcasts ) . The `` exclusive '' opportunity 

I was granted after four years of requesting a personal interview and being turn

ed down was really just another instance of Stern making unabashed use of the me

dia for self-promotional purposes . In other words , it was Howard being Howard 

in the most Howardly way he knows how . The occasion Wednesday was Stern 's anno

uncement to his radio listeners of a deal he 'd made to do a daily series for th

e E ! Entertainment Television cable network . Stern deigned to put up with some

 questions from a reporter for the greater good of celebrating `` the start of s

omething amazing . '' `` I thought it would be nice to have somebody from the me

dia on the phone with us to listen in on my big news who could ask intelligent q

uestions , '' Stern explained on the air . He was much more interested in my ana

tomy than my questions , it turned out . This much I did learn : The cable show 

will simply be a televised version of his radio show and is part of a larger dev

elopment deal Stern has with E ! All five hours of his popular syndicated mornin

g program will be videotaped each weekday by six robotic cameras , then a half-h

our will be culled for showing on the cable network that night . But after 45 mi

nutes on the air with Stern it seemed an eternity there still remained some conf

usion . The E ! series might be called `` The Howard Stern Show With Pictures ''

 or `` The Howard Stern Radio Show on Television '' or even `` Howard Stern on t

he Air . '' There 's no telling . It might debut June 13 . Then again , the laun

ch date may be June 20 . No one is quite sure . Stern and sidekick Robin Quivers

 at least were honest about what the E ! deal entailed : `` We get to do televis

ion without any extra work , '' Quivers said . `` And doing it on a major networ

k is too easy , '' Stern quipped . `` I wanted the challenge of E ! , where nobo

dy can see us . '' He tried to make a serious case about being persecuted by the

 Federal Communications Commission . He tried to explain why he couldn't come to

 terms with Fox for a late-night talk show . He tried to describe how the film v

ersion of his best-seller `` Private Parts '' would make him a movie star . He t

ried to find out my bra size . After it was over , with nothing terribly persona

l revealed and Stern respectfully admitting that I had always been fair to him ,

 I breathed a sigh of relief . I even began to think I might have managed to eme

rge from the experience with some dignity intact . My peace of mind was shattere

d when I got to the office and heard the first message on my voice mail : A repr

esentative of the 509th squadron of the Air Force , stationed in Lakeland , Fla.

 , said he and some 50 other guys had heard me on the show and wanted to know if

 I could send them an 8-by-10 glossy . Rush Limbaugh would never have put me thr

ough this .

 At 8:10 p.m. on Feb. 17 , 1944 , a balding , 32-year-old Spaniard had a radioma

n transmit a coded message from England to a German intelligence center in Madri

d . The message reported that `` there is no concentration '' of Allied troops a

long Britain 's southern coast . The Germans believed that the Spaniard , Juan P

ujol Garcia , was their best spy in Britain , but he was in fact a double agent 

: an anti-fascist working for British intelligence , who code named him GARBO . 

The radiogram marked the beginning of his involvement in the Allies ' deception 

plan for D-Day the most extensive , sophisticated and successful program of mili

tary trickery of all time . The plan had several angles , but a basic one was to

 make the Germans think that the landing in Normandy was a feint to draw German 

forces from the real onslaught , which would come later and in the Pas-de-Calais

 , opposite the white cliffs of Dover . This location seemed logical to the orth

odox military thinkers of Germany . Because the Pas-de-Calais was closer to Brit

ain than Normandy was , ships could transport more troops to it more quickly and

 airplanes could patrol it longer . Moreover , it was closer to Germany 's indus

trial heartland , the Ruhr . To confirm to the Germans that the main assault wou

ld take place in the Pas-de-Calais , Allied bombers struck rail lines and milita

ry installations there more heavily than around Normandy . GARBO and other doubl

e agents reported that troops were building up in the area of England close to t

he Pas-de-Calais ; though they exaggerated , they included some factual details 

to maintain their credibility . Dummy tanks of inflatable rubber , left out for 

German aerial reconnaissance to spot , added to the impression . The deception t

eam had to make the Germans think the Allies had enough troops to carry out both

 a fake landing and a real one . So it invented imaginary divisions . One of the

se was the U.S. 55th Infantry . American deception officers had the Army 's Inst

itute of Heraldry devise an insignia of a double pentagon a blue one with a yell

ow one inside . Then one of the double agents in Britain reported seeing this ba

dge . Within weeks German intelligence was reporting the non-existent division a

s stationed in Scotland . `` Information '' sent over other controlled channels 

let the Germans think one source was confirming another when , in fact , both re

sulted from a carefully coordinated program . For example , the Allies knew the 

Germans listened to Allied radio messages . So the signal corps transmitted mess

ages to and from fake units . Thus the German intercept post at Euskirchen `` di

scovered '' the U.S. 49th and 59th Infantry Divisions . Neither existed . ( Begi

n optional trim ) To command these imaginary forces , the Allies created the ima

ginary First U.S. . Army Group , or FUSAG , and the equally imaginary American 1

4th Army . They gave FUSAG credibility by letting it be known that it would be l

ed by one of the most glamorous of Allied generals , George S. Patton. GARBO pas

sed some of this information , and soon FUSAG appeared on German situation maps 

. All these tricks together convinced the Germans a week before the invasion , w

hen the Allies had 47 divisions in Britain , that 79 were there more than enough

 to mount both a diversionary landing and a real one . ( End optional trim ) Not

 all the credit for this success must go to the deception planners . The Allied 

cryptographers were reading top-level German codes while the Germans were unable

 to read Allied messages . Allied air defenses were so strong that the Germans c

ould not obtain comprehensive long-range photo reconnaissance to see that landin

g craft were concentrating for a Normandy invasion . Every spy that the Germans 

sent to Britain was captured , leaving the field clear for double agents . Brita

in was separated from the enemy by 20 miles of water , making combat observation

 , such as often undid Soviet deceptions on the eastern front , impossible . Per

haps most important was the German preconception that the attack would come in t

he Pas-de-Calais . But it was largely the deception planners , among them the Lo

ndon Controlling Section and the Double-Cross , or XX , or Twenty , Committee , 

that orchestrated this vast , intricate and enormously successful trick . On the

 sixth of June , when the Allies landed on the beaches of Normandy , the defende

rs were weaker than they might have been because the German 15th Army and associ

ated reserves were held in the Pas-de-Calais . Two days later , GARBO , who had 

further solidified his reputation among the Germans as their best spy by radioin

g a message announcing the invasion timed to arrive too late for the Germans to 

do anything about it said that `` the present attack .. . is diversionary . '' T

he Germans believed him , as they had believed all the `` evidence '' the Allies

 had placed at their disposal . So they did not send forces to Normandy from the

 Pas-de-Calais , and the Allies lodged themselves on the continent , beginning t

he mighty endeavor that was to liberate Europe .

 With all the drums and banners and selected film footage , perhaps Americans ca

n be forgiven for embracing the 50th anniversary of D-Day in the belief that suc

cess was inevitable . After all , we outnumbered them . We outgunned them . And 

God was on our side . But it wasn't that simple . It may seem unthinkable in the

 heady red , white and blue haze of celebration and remembrance , but it could h

ave gone the other way . Not everyone was confident of success 50 years ago , no

t even the military leaders who planned the operation . The commander of the inv

asion forces , Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower , prepared this message and carried it 

with him until a month after the invasion : `` Our landings in the Cherbourg-Hav

re area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the tro

ops . My decision to attack at this time and place was based upon the best infor

mation available . The troops , the air and the navy did all that bravery and de

votion to duty could do . If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt , it is 

mine alone . '' Winston Churchill , who was never enthusiastic about the invasio

n , said to Eisenhower early in 1944 , `` When I think of the beaches of Normand

y choked with the flower of American and British youth .. . I have my doubts .. 

. I have my doubts . '' If the enterprise had failed , the villains would have r

emained the same , but there might have been different heroes and different poli

tical maps . Herewith , history tampered with and a vision of what might have ha

ppened if Germany had prevailed on June 6 , 1944 . -0- The people at home are gr

owing impatient . After 2 years of war , the Allies are still nibbling at the ed

ges . But we know we can win with one swift go-for-broke punch . And so we 've c

rammed Britain with 2 million men and hundreds of thousands of vehicles and airc

raft and we wait for good weather . A meteorologist has predicted 36 hours of sk

ies clear enough to admit warplanes into France to prepare the way . But bad wea

ther sneaks up on you . Eisenhower is doubtful . He asks British Field Marshal B

ernard Law Montgomery what he thinks . `` Go , '' says Monty . And so they go . 

The armada sails but the skies fail to clear . The aerial bombardment is ineffec

tive . Ships bob like corks on the churning English Channel . Flat-bottomed land

ing craft are seesawed by the waves . And on the heights in the distance , the s

easick invaders can see deadly orange and rose-red flashes blurring through the 

fog . The whole catalog of German artillery , from delicate quad-mounted anti-ai

rcraft guns to infamous 88s , has been rushed to the Normandy beaches . The defe

nders , secure on the heights , fire like marksmen at a shooting gallery , blast

ing landing craft on the downswing , chopping up American infantrymen as they st

umble out of landing craft into churning waves and exploding mines . Tanks rumbl

e into position , their guns adding to the carnage . Lt. Gen. Omar Bradley comma

nds the U.S. forces from a warship . He can't see anything from the rain-whipped

 bridge , but he hears the desperate messages radioed from Omaha Beach by soldie

rs who have made it onto the shingle alive . Bradley willn't allow any more GIs 

to be slaughtered . They must turn back . A diversion is impossible . Montgomery

 agrees . German tanks and artillery are battering the Allied troops on all the 

Normandy beaches . Inland , 18,000 airborne and glider troops are cut off . Desp

ite the wea ther , the dependable C-47s make it well beyond the Channel coast . 

But now those troopers are lost , dropped far from their assigned drop zones bec

ause of the stormy skies . The Germans have clapped the stranded troops behind b

arbed wire within two weeks . -0- `` Once defeated , the enemy will never try to

 invade again . Quite apart from their heavy losses , they would need months to 

organize a fresh attempt , '' Adolf Hitler had told a meeting of his generals at

 Berchtesgaden weeks before . And now the Fuhrer is quick to take credit for the

 victory . Once again , the madman tells his generals , history has endorsed his

 military genius . Reich minister of information Josef Goebbels smirks with sati

sfaction . But the victory will be short-lived . And it will be costly because i

t will prolong the war . Another invasion is inevitable . The Allies know the ne

xt invasion could be costlier than the first . Meanwhile , the Soviets are rumbl

ing west . If they take France , a clash with the Western Allies is inevitable .

 What if Berlin were taken out in a single bombing raid with the new , untried a

tomic bomb ? But Germany is protected by too many hostages , tens of thousands o

f Allied prisoners of war , hundreds of thousands of slave laborers and an untol

d number of concentration-camp inmates . No , it would be a political disaster .

 To Josef Stalin , the failed invasion is a dream come true . Hitler has been fo

rced to divert precious resources westward and the British and Americans have be

en deprived of a foothold on the continent . Perhaps they will nurse their wound

s long enough to permit the Soviet juggernaut to roll to the Atlantic . And then

 perhaps , a Marxist Europe . Virtually the entire resistance movement in France

 is Communist . Indeed , orders are transmitted from Moscow to the French Commun

ists to suspend anti-Nazi activities so as to maintain a status quo until furthe

r notice . The Gestapo is mystified but relieved . Eisenhower is sent home to ta

ke a staff position in Washington . He retires and with his wife , Mamie , takes

 up obscure residence in Abilene , Kan . He is replaced at invasion headquarters

 in London by a reluctant Gen. George C. Marshall , who , a few months before , 

would have killed to get the job . Churchill 's worst nightmare has come true . 

A hysterical Field Marshal Montgomery is near collapse and goes on a prolonged l

eave . Bradley remains , under a cloud , in a subsidiary command position . Only

 Gen. George S. Patton is left to head the American ground troops . Stalin shudd

ers . Patton is no leftist . A Stalinist France seems less attainable . Would it

 be worth a new war ? Patton and Churchill would welcome the excuse . And could 

Soviet forces hope to win so far from home ? Stalin will compromise for greater 

Soviet hegemony . -0- The second invasion is launched in unseasonably fine Septe

mber weather during a week of almost cloudless skies . Casualties are still heav

y . To President Franklin D. Roosevelt 's horror , Patton goes ashore with the t

roops in a landing craft and , to the general 's delight , is slightly but visib

ly wounded . The troops clear the beach and drive back the Nazis within 24 hours

 . And within months , the war in Europe ends .. . in a fictitious but plausible

 way . Could Germany have won ? There was practically no possibility of that eve

n if D-Day had failed . A year before , German forces had been demolished at Sta

lingrad and Hitler 's Afrika Korps had been defeated at Tunisia . And finally , 

there was too much Soviet land and too many Soviet soldiers . Not even fiction c

ould reasonably give Germany a final victory .

 In the spring of 1943 , Nazi troops were ordered to evacuate all Jews from the 

Warsaw ghetto where they had been forced to live , and put them on cattle cars h

eaded for the death camps . A few hundred Jews , practically unarmed and hopeles

sly outnumbered , fought back . `` Resistance , '' by Israel Gutman , is the dra

matic story of the Warsaw ghetto from its creation to its awful , bloody end . T

his is difficult , emotional material , and my experience of it changed while I 

was reading the book . Until the uprising begins , well over halfway through the

 book , one may feel hopelessly depressed and even sick . Nearly 500,000 people 

were packed into a few square blocks where they were starved , beaten and worked

 to within an inch of their lives . Diseases broke out , babies died in the stre

et ( the suffering of children is the hardest part to read ) yet no one fought b

ack until it was obvious the Nazis intended to kill them all . At that point , `

` Resistance '' becomes oddly exhilarating . `` The entire ghetto was ablaze . T

housands of people near physical and mental collapse virtually on the verge of m

adness not only maintained this way of life , but viewed its disappearance as a 

great catastrophe ... . Nazis called ( for the Jews ) to surrender , and the inh

abitants responded with bullets . '' There is enormous power in choosing your ow

n death , and the hundreds of Jews who resisted , many of them teen-agers , grab

bed that choice with a courage that shows the very best of what the human spirit

 has to offer. -0- `` BROTHER SAM : The Short Spectacular Life of Sam Kinison , 

'' by Bill Kinison with Steve Delsohn ( Morrow , $ 22 , 315 pp . ) Not everyone 

liked comedian Sam Kinison 's brand of screaming , irreverent humor , but as a p

erformer he was , without question , a true American original . `` Brother Sam ,

 '' written by his older brother and manager , Bill Kinison , sets out to illumi

nate the man behind the agonized yell . Sam Kinison was a high school dropout , 

a traveling Pentecostal-style preacher ( along with his father and brother ) and

 a rebel . His comedy was connected to his rage by an unbroken line that made hi

m a millionaire and simultaneously alienated much of the entertainment industry 

. He died in a car crash in 1992 . This book 's material , though compelling , f

eels so close to Bill Kinison 's heart that it 's almost impossible to see Sam .

 Instead we see Bill 's Sam who is often tragic , funny , original and sharp , b

ut not , one suspects , the same man that would have emerged if this book had be

en written by another person . Bill Kinison raised co-dependency to new heights 

, even accepting a drug sentence for Sam and attending five months of court-mand

ated rehab in his place . In spite of being both too close and not close enough 

, `` Brother Sam '' is a completely engaging biography . Bill Kinison spends exa

ctly the right amount of time on each chapter of Sam 's life , and although we h

unger for input from other human sources , particularly his third wife , Malika 

, the book still manages to quote magazine articles and pieces of Sam 's routine

s very effectively. -0- `` REVIVING OPHELIA : Saving the Selves of Adolescent Gi

rls , '' by Mary Pipher ( Putnam , $ 23.95 , 320 pp . ) According to clinical ps

ychologist Mary Pipher , adolescent girls are in terrible trouble . Teen-age pre

gnancy , drug abuse , eating disorders , self mutilation and depression are all 

on the rise . The cause of this , Pipher contends , is to be found in today 's s

ociety where `` ( Girls are ) caught in myriad double binds : achieve , but not 

too much ; be polite , but be yourself , be feminine and adult ... . They are tr

ained to be what the culture wants of its young women , not what they themselves

 want to become . '' In `` Reviving Ophelia , '' Pipher shines high-beam headlig

hts on the world of teen-age girls by giving us case studies of adolescents from

 every possible racial and socio-economic background . The book is an articulate