Pegasus Bridge: D-Day - the Daring British Airborne Raid

This book, if you're British, will make you feel so patriotic. I enjoyed this book so much that I was compelled to write a letter to Major John Howard and was so devastated to find out he had passed away a year before. I would recommend any History lover and to anyone lacking in patriotism. Classic book by a classic historian and without doubt, one of the best books I've read in a long time! Any non-brit would read this book and realise the daring missions the British Armed forces had to endure to help the D-Day landings!

Best of British! (4/5 people found this helpful)

Another book from the literary stable of American author Stephen Amrbose. I had noticed that the author always takes an obvious patriotic slant towards the American effort into the Second World War so why write about Pegasus Bridge? The book explains this as Ambrose, on a visit to the battle site of the said bridge, actually meets by chance and has a battlefield tour by the actual raid commander Major John Howard. So impressed was the author by Howard's depiction of this epic D-Day raid that he decided to write a book on the story.

What a story it is too? In this first D-Day engagement, the capture of this Normandy Bridge was reputed to be crucial to the success of the D-Day invasion. Its capture would deny a route for German reinforcements to support the defences on the stormed beaches. So the scene was set in that pre invasion dawn of the 6th June 1944 for a small airborne team of highly trained British troops to take off from the green fields of England on what was to become the most famous glider borne attack of the war.

Travelling over the English Channel in their fragile aircraft the troops are glided in with pin point precision to within yards of their objective....`Pegasus Bridge'. With complete surprise on their side Howard's men storm and take the bridge with minimal casualties and hunker down to repel the German counter attack until they are relieved by invasion troops.

Hopelessly outnumbered the airborne troops fight a cornered rat type of desperate defence....never giving in despite the odds. At one point when an armoured column of six tanks are sent against them a lone soldier with a Piat stops the first one literally in its tracks. This forces the other tanks to retreat fearing that the British are supported by an anti tank gun battery. This necessitates the comment that the Piat round shot by the soldier...Sgt Thorton...might be one of the most important rounds to be fired in the war...in effect his Piat round stopped the bridge being retaken and thereby giving the Panzers a free route to the beaches to repel the allied invasion.

Even the scene of the eventual relief on the bridge, when the commandos from the invasion spearhead join up with the airborne troops, becomes one of the most legendary British scenes of the war. The commandos let by Lord Lovatt, accompanied by his piper Bill Milne, march stiffly across the bridge to the sounds of the pipes whilst ignoring heavy enemy gunfire...the scene was made famous in the film `The Longest Day'.

As all of Stephen Ambrose's books the story is told with clarity, passion and admiration. The book cover the intense training leading up to the raid, dissects the personal nature, strengths and weaknesses of the men involved and covers the dramatic battle for the bridge as well as a concise narrative of the invasion itself. A great read about a real boys own story...a true military adventure that was distinctively British.

Britain did take part in D-Day after all! (8/9 people found this helpful)

Over the last few years’ popular history has been re-written by films such as Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers (both excellent by the way) into believing that the D-Day landings were a US only operation.

Not so, and this superb account by Stephen E Ambrose details the daring glider raid to capture the Pegasus Bridge spanning the Orne Canal by the British 6th Airborne Division in the first few minutes of D-Day.

Major John Howard and his troops seized and held the bridge (of great strategic importance to the landings) taking its German defenders by complete surprise. The book also details the death of Lt. Den Brotheridge - the first allied soldier to lose his life on D-Day.

A "Boys' Own" adventure (10/10 people found this helpful)

...except this one happens to be true. Of all the stories of 6 June 1944, few are as extraordinary - or as important - as this one. The description of the taking and holding of Pegasus Bridge by British airborne troops under the command of the late Maj. John Howard just after midnight on 6 June, including the training leading up to it and the aftermath, is an amazing one. The glider landing, in a tiny space through barbed wire and within yards of the bridge itself, was described as the best bit of flying of the whole of the war. It all went perfectly to plan, one of the few things on D-Day that did. One can only wonder what would have happened had it not - and be thankful that it did (not to mention that Hitler had gone to bed and could not be disturbed to release the Panzer Divisions under his personal command).

One of the old soldiers interviewed by Ambrose stopped a German tank by holding his fire until the thing was almost on top of him. "Now don't you be making me out to be some sort of hero!" he said. To which Ambrose delightfully retorted that he didn't make heroes, he merely wrote about them. And he does very well. The story is well-written and gripping.

A nice touch. One of the reinforcing paratroopers dropped in after the initial glider assault was a Captain Richard Todd. Todd was later to play Maj. Howard in the Darryl Zanuck fim "The Longest Day".

Up the Ox and Bucks. (11/11 people found this helpful)

This is the story of the Ox and Bucks regiment who captured Pegasus bridge on D-Day. This book is superb and gives an excellent account of the importance of the mission and the training of the men leading up to the actual assault and capture of the bridge. It then goes on to explain how the bridge was held and includes good detail of when the re-enforcements arrived. This book is written very well and it has lots of eye witness accounts in it by people who were actually there. I visited the bridge during the 60th anniversary of D-Day and I would certainly reccommend reading this book prior to visiting the bridge. This will ensure that you know the full facts and will increase your interest when you see the bridge and its surrounding areas. This book has inspired me to purchase another book titled "The devils own luck" which is about the Ox and Bucks regiment after Pegasus bridge up to the end of the war.

Pegasus Bridge: D-Day - the Daring British Airborne Raid

Stephen E. Ambrose

Reader Reviews:

Amazing!! (1/1 people found this helpful)

Best of British! (4/5 people found this helpful)

Britain did take part in D-Day after all! (8/9 people found this helpful)

A "Boys' Own" adventure (10/10 people found this helpful)

Up the Ox and Bucks. (11/11 people found this helpful)

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