Status
Available
Call number
Publication
New York ; London : Simon and Schuster, 1988, c1985.
Description
History. Military. Nonfiction. HTML:In the early morning hours of June 6, 1944, a small detachment of British airborne troops stormed the German defense forces and paved the way for the Allied invasion of Europe. Pegasus Bridge was the first engagement of D-Day, the turning point of World War II. This gripping account of it by acclaimed author Stephen Ambrose brings to life a daring mission so crucial that, had it been unsuccessful, the entire Normandy invasion might have failed. Ambrose traces each step of the preparations over many months to the minute-by-minute excitement of the hand-to-hand confrontations on the bridge. This is a story of heroism and cowardice, kindness and brutality�??the stuff of all great adventur
User reviews
LibraryThing member PIER50
Having read this book, I went to the Pegasus Bridge site in Normandy, and the Gondree Cafe (the first place to be liberated) Going round the excellent pegasus Bridge museum really brought the book to life as their were reminders of several of the men mentioned in the book. This gave it an almost
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personal feel as you felt you had met them. I am no historian, but I felt the book gave a very real sense of the raid with good character studies of those involved Show Less
LibraryThing member Choccy
Stephen E. Ambrose is a master storyteller. He makes it so easy, interviewing people then write about them. Imagine the editing works, placing one story after another, in the way that the readers would better understand and imagine. Pegasus Bridge is not as special as Citizen Soldiers or Band of
The story is about a gliderborne unit of the British Ox and Bucks Light Infantry Regiment, 6th Airborne Division, commanded by Major John Howard, who captured two bridges (one rechristened Pegasus) between Bénouville and Ranville, Normany, and held them until reinforcements came. This is claimed to be the first assault by the Allies as well as the first combat engagements between the opposing parties in Normandy during D-Day. The troops were the first who liberated a French home (whose owners were spies working for the Resistance) and one of its platoon leaders was the first casualty from the Allies side in D-Day. Yes, Howard’s D Company indeed scored many ‘firsts’.
I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed when I read the first pages of the book. I thought I was going a read a book about paratroopers. Blame my silly infatuation on paras due to BoB. I was a bit indoctrinated as well by the impression in BoB that gliderborne troopers were not as qualified and disciplined as the paras. Well, that is not the case with Howard’s men. It surely took lots of courage to surrender your fate on a Horsa whose movement and bearing were not entirely up to your own pilot, but the bomber towing your glider. Paras are more mobile because they have their own chutes.
Along with the glider pilots, the sappers, the paras, Howard and his troopers managed to surprise the Germans who, just like what happened during the D-Day sea invasion, showed a very lousy and ineffective chain of command and communication. It sometimes frustrates me (seriously) to read their ridiculous mistakes in D-Day (thanks to the Fuhrer) whereas they had legendary field marshals like Rommel and Von Rundstedt to lead.
This feat was very influential to the outcome of D-Day, since it blocked the way of a strong panzer division, whose counterattack could destroy the advancing seaborne invaders.
The training part of the book was a bit boring unfortunately. [Ambrose used the same formula with BoB and his other book Wild Blue, i.e. giving many details about the training phase:] I’d like to read more about the action part but it only covers half of the book. I noted that Howard’s D Company was the toughest SOBs in the whole airborne division due to their fanaticism over sports and physical endeavors, but that’s about the only interesting fact I found. More detailed actions, please.
Apparently, this story appeared a bit in the movie version of The Longest Day. Hell, I dislike the movie so much I can not remember anything (but the book is super excellent, mind you). The actor who played John Howard was in fact a part of the operation, a member of the 7th Battalion of the Parachute Regiment who reinforced the British troops in the area.
Anyway, this is still recommended for military buffs, especially the ones who want some light reading or curious about events that are not (presumably) widely covered by other battle accounts.
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Brothers (BoB), but it still delivers.The story is about a gliderborne unit of the British Ox and Bucks Light Infantry Regiment, 6th Airborne Division, commanded by Major John Howard, who captured two bridges (one rechristened Pegasus) between Bénouville and Ranville, Normany, and held them until reinforcements came. This is claimed to be the first assault by the Allies as well as the first combat engagements between the opposing parties in Normandy during D-Day. The troops were the first who liberated a French home (whose owners were spies working for the Resistance) and one of its platoon leaders was the first casualty from the Allies side in D-Day. Yes, Howard’s D Company indeed scored many ‘firsts’.
I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed when I read the first pages of the book. I thought I was going a read a book about paratroopers. Blame my silly infatuation on paras due to BoB. I was a bit indoctrinated as well by the impression in BoB that gliderborne troopers were not as qualified and disciplined as the paras. Well, that is not the case with Howard’s men. It surely took lots of courage to surrender your fate on a Horsa whose movement and bearing were not entirely up to your own pilot, but the bomber towing your glider. Paras are more mobile because they have their own chutes.
Along with the glider pilots, the sappers, the paras, Howard and his troopers managed to surprise the Germans who, just like what happened during the D-Day sea invasion, showed a very lousy and ineffective chain of command and communication. It sometimes frustrates me (seriously) to read their ridiculous mistakes in D-Day (thanks to the Fuhrer) whereas they had legendary field marshals like Rommel and Von Rundstedt to lead.
This feat was very influential to the outcome of D-Day, since it blocked the way of a strong panzer division, whose counterattack could destroy the advancing seaborne invaders.
The training part of the book was a bit boring unfortunately. [Ambrose used the same formula with BoB and his other book Wild Blue, i.e. giving many details about the training phase:] I’d like to read more about the action part but it only covers half of the book. I noted that Howard’s D Company was the toughest SOBs in the whole airborne division due to their fanaticism over sports and physical endeavors, but that’s about the only interesting fact I found. More detailed actions, please.
Apparently, this story appeared a bit in the movie version of The Longest Day. Hell, I dislike the movie so much I can not remember anything (but the book is super excellent, mind you). The actor who played John Howard was in fact a part of the operation, a member of the 7th Battalion of the Parachute Regiment who reinforced the British troops in the area.
Anyway, this is still recommended for military buffs, especially the ones who want some light reading or curious about events that are not (presumably) widely covered by other battle accounts.
Show Less
LibraryThing member OldNick
Good tactical history, from the master of tactical description and personal war experience. Annoying, unctuous, and full of American sentimentality, but still a good read.
LibraryThing member meegeekai
Great little book by my favorite historian on the assault on the Caen canal bridge at Ranville, just inland from the far eastern end of the Normandy beachhead. I have been to Pegasus Bridge and this book was a fun read, knowing the terrain. Did not even know Ambrose wrote this book until recently.
LibraryThing member Angelic55blonde
This was a pretty good book by Stephen Ambrose but not one of my favorites.
LibraryThing member Spinechicken
Definitely a good read, but Ambrose typically overplays the role played by D Company during the later D-Day battle and indeed the Normandy campaign. His habit of not acknowledging sources is also an irritation, as are the many minor factual errors in the book.
A good read, but you'd be better off
A good read, but you'd be better off
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with Harclerode's divisional history of the 6th, or Denis Edwards autobiography. Show Less
LibraryThing member TacticalTank
This book is very a good book, it involves the nice "Brotherhood'ness" of band of brothers, and it was written by the same Author. It also gives a lot of detail on where these brave soldiers are now. This book is an amazing book and I HIGHLY recomend it to any one who enjoys reading about the
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second world war or just enjoy's the Band Of Brothers shows/books. Show Less
LibraryThing member MrDickie
Interesting account of the first engagement of D-Day (6 June 1944).
LibraryThing member setnahkt
Pegasus Bridge, by historian Stephen Ambrose, describes the capture of key bridges over the Caen Canal (the titular one) and the Orne River in the early morning hours of June 6, 1944. Ambrose cites the inspiration for the book in his introduction; he was leading a tour of WWII battlefields and had
This is a straightforward, well-written modern military history. Ambrose interviewed participants from both sides (and French civilians) and presents the results in a nicely organized fashion. There’s no excessive drama, as I’ve run across in some other WWII accounts I’ve read recently; Ambrose is a historian, not a journalist, and has no need to add anything artificial to the actual events. At the same time Ambrose states he wants to get to the heat of things in a small unit action, without any more of the large-scale level than necessary to set the scene.
If you’re not familiar with the Pegasus Bridge action, a reinforced company of the 2nd Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry glider landed almost in contact with two bridges on the extreme left flank of the D-Day invasion zone. The mission was to take the bridges intact and hold them against counterattack until relieved; the idea was that holding the bridges would prevent the Germans from using them to counterattack the beachhead and also allow them to be used when the British and Canadian forces on Gold, Juno and Sword beaches eventually broke out. The Ox and Bucks recovered from fairly rough landings, stormed out of their gliders, shot up a few sentries, beat off some desultory German counterattacks (including taking out an incautious Pz IV with one of their two PIAT bombs), and waited until paratroopers from 6th Airborne (dropped nearby) and Commandos (marching overland from the beachhead, piper and Lord Lovat in front) showed up. There are the usual war stories; when the movie The Longest Day built a replica Horsa glider to recreate the attack, it was refused an airworthiness certificate and had to be broken down and shipped by sea rather than towed to Normandy; when the Commandos captured a couple of Germans who had fled their barracks in their underwear, they were handed off to higher authorities as members of a Panzoff Division; when Corporal Killean took out a sniper in a church tower with a couple of PIAT bombs, he crossed himself and said “I’m sorry to see what I have done to a wee house of God”.
In final chapters Ambrose does allow himself a little speculation. Failure to capture the bridges would not have led to a German victory, but it would have been pretty unpleasant. The 6th Airborne would have been cut off on the wrong side of a major river, and German armored units would have had a much easier time getting to the landing zone. He also contends that the airborne and airlanding troops involved in the action were kept in Normandy as line infantry way too long; their presence at Arnhem might have made a difference.
No maps; this is slightly atoned for by aerial photographs of the bridges, but in my trade paperback all the photographs are printed on uncoated stock and are thus badly washed out. The index and references seem a little sparse. Still, an easy and exciting read.
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just finished inspecting the bridges. As he was getting back on the bus a white-haired man hobbled up and asked if any of them were British from the Sixth Airborne Division; Ambrose said “No, we’re all Americans on this bus”; the elderly man leaned on his cane and said “Oh, I’m sorry”; Ambrose replied “Don’t be sorry; we’re all rather proud to be Americans” and then, perhaps regretting being a little snarky, asked “Were you in the Sixth Airborne?” At that point the elderly man introduced himself as Major John Howard. Serendipity indeed.This is a straightforward, well-written modern military history. Ambrose interviewed participants from both sides (and French civilians) and presents the results in a nicely organized fashion. There’s no excessive drama, as I’ve run across in some other WWII accounts I’ve read recently; Ambrose is a historian, not a journalist, and has no need to add anything artificial to the actual events. At the same time Ambrose states he wants to get to the heat of things in a small unit action, without any more of the large-scale level than necessary to set the scene.
If you’re not familiar with the Pegasus Bridge action, a reinforced company of the 2nd Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry glider landed almost in contact with two bridges on the extreme left flank of the D-Day invasion zone. The mission was to take the bridges intact and hold them against counterattack until relieved; the idea was that holding the bridges would prevent the Germans from using them to counterattack the beachhead and also allow them to be used when the British and Canadian forces on Gold, Juno and Sword beaches eventually broke out. The Ox and Bucks recovered from fairly rough landings, stormed out of their gliders, shot up a few sentries, beat off some desultory German counterattacks (including taking out an incautious Pz IV with one of their two PIAT bombs), and waited until paratroopers from 6th Airborne (dropped nearby) and Commandos (marching overland from the beachhead, piper and Lord Lovat in front) showed up. There are the usual war stories; when the movie The Longest Day built a replica Horsa glider to recreate the attack, it was refused an airworthiness certificate and had to be broken down and shipped by sea rather than towed to Normandy; when the Commandos captured a couple of Germans who had fled their barracks in their underwear, they were handed off to higher authorities as members of a Panzoff Division; when Corporal Killean took out a sniper in a church tower with a couple of PIAT bombs, he crossed himself and said “I’m sorry to see what I have done to a wee house of God”.
In final chapters Ambrose does allow himself a little speculation. Failure to capture the bridges would not have led to a German victory, but it would have been pretty unpleasant. The 6th Airborne would have been cut off on the wrong side of a major river, and German armored units would have had a much easier time getting to the landing zone. He also contends that the airborne and airlanding troops involved in the action were kept in Normandy as line infantry way too long; their presence at Arnhem might have made a difference.
No maps; this is slightly atoned for by aerial photographs of the bridges, but in my trade paperback all the photographs are printed on uncoated stock and are thus badly washed out. The index and references seem a little sparse. Still, an easy and exciting read.
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LibraryThing member GWReviewDabbler
Not going to say much, I even find it strange giving a book about real life events stars. This is immensely interesting and makes you realise how brave were these men. Thank you Major Howard and his men and thank you Stephen E. Ambrose for bringing their stories to the world.
LibraryThing member addunn3
WWII taking of bridge during D-Day.
LibraryThing member buffalogr
Short, and very tactical, book which focuses on the British 6th Airborne Division's task of securing the D-Day inland bridges. It was well written and easy to understand. I'd suggest looking at a map before one listens to this book as it will help in understanding. The use of gliders is well
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explained. A very good account of Major John Howard and the men of Company D, the Ox and Bucks Light Infantry Regiment. Show Less
Language
Original publication date
1985
Physical description
223 p.; 25 inches
ISBN
0671671561 / 9780671671563