Pegasus Bridge: June 6, 1944 by Stephen E. Ambrose

Pegasus Bridge: June 6, 1944 Reviews

• 
  Pop

  This is my first experience with Ambrose, other than his Band of Brothers DVD set. I have to say that I really enjoyed the book and his style. If I didn’t know the taking of Pegasus Bridge was real I would have thought the story fiction with wonderful character development and plot twists and turns. Highly recommended for history buffs.
• 
  Paul

  Didn't find it as gripping or as cohesive as his 'Band of brothers' book but still very detailed.
• 
  Dimitri

  Fresh off his Eisenhower biography*, Ambrose was looking for a short and sweet subject. He found it and gives it to us short and sweet, without pulling any 'Ambroses'. It is most touching to see friendships develop between a few former adversaries. Also, in spite of the just resentment by the French civilian population, it's hard to be hard on young, conscripted Poles who relished wine and women more than weapons drill, wisely taking to their heels when confronted with devilishly blackened elite attackers. The bravado inherent to Airborne units lends a surreal touch to many of the tense accomplishments during the two-day holding operation.
  
  *
  by
  
  Stephen E. Ambrose
• 
  Olethros

  -Casi periodismo.-
  
  Género. Ensayo (en realidad es más una crónica o un reportaje, pero no tengo esa clasificación en el blog).
  
  Lo que nos cuenta. Acercamiento a la operación aerotransportada británica para la toma de unos puentes sobre el canal de Caen con la intención de facilitar la penetración inmediata de las tropas que estaban a punto de desembarcar en Normandía durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial, pero acercamiento también a los que participaron, a sus vidas e incluso a la gestión del propio libro.
  
  ¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
  
  
  http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...
• 
  Jeff Dawson

  Good historical account
  
  This isn't the greatest of Stephens Books, but it is worthy of any collector and historian. The book recalls the men and eventsthat allowed the British Glider and Parachute regiment to capture the all important bridge crossing the Orne and adjacent canal in order to prevent the 21st Panzer Division from disrupting and possibly defeating the landings at Sword, Juno and Gold Beach.
  
  The scene is well documented in the movie "The Longest Day." Remember the famous lines, "hold until relieved?" That is exactly what these men did.
  
  What I enjoyed the most was the training the soldiers endured to become one of the elite. The years of training was brutal and tiresome. Many men were broken either mentally, physically or both. Imagine training for over two years before applying your craft and still able to maintain at a "razor's edge."
  
  The story isn't so much about the invasion on June 6, it is more about the men who partook in the action.
  
  Mr. Ambrose does an excellent job of honoring the men and woman who were the first allied soldiers to trigger the end of "Fortress Europa," and pave the way final victory.
  
• 
  'Aussie Rick'

  
  
  
  Although dated this is still a very good account of Major John Howard and the men of Company D, the Ox and Bucks Light Infantry Regiment of the British 6th Airborne Division, and their role in capturing and holding the bridge over the Caen Canal at Benouville on the night of 5/6th June 1944.
  
  The book (HB edition) is only 160 pages of narrative but it’s a great story and it’s hard to put it down once you have started. I found it full of interesting and at times funny first-hand accounts and although this is a serious story of men at war it still has moments of typical British humour. This is a great account of some of the first men to land on D-Day. Thanks to the author for providing a detailed and interesting account of this amazing action.
• 
  Doug

  Very quick and entertaining read on the British airborne assault of Pegasus Bridge. Being familiar with only the HBO adaptation on
  Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest (which is PHENOMENAL) I was curious to check out Ambrose's writing. I have Simon & Schuster to thank for the free copy of this one, simply for going through the trouble of signing up for their mailing list. Anyways, Ambrose clearly does his research and it shines through during this retelling of the events leading up to, during, and after D Company assaulted the bridge. I would have appreciated maybe a little more depth and detail of the assault itself, but it's a minor complaint. What is in here is good stuff, I just wish there was more of it.
• 
  Edward Burton

  I play a well known gateway board game called Memoir '44. Players use cards, dice and tiny plastic soldiers on a fold out map board to mimic famous WWII battles, using strategies and a bit of luck to outpace the real life officers and men who fought and died in these places. The first scenario reenacts the famous "Pegasus Bridge" incident in which British special forces (before special forces was a thing) to take control of two bridges leading up to the coast of Normandy, thereby preventing the Germans from being able to supply mobile reinforcements to the defenders of the coast during the famous invasion.
  
  As I find Stephen E. Ambrose's writing transports me to the mud, blood, snow, anguish, and weariness of war like no other writer does. I was anxious to delve into this book with a bit of foreknowledge gleaned from my experiences with my board game. Ambrose did such a remarkable job of giving traits, personalities and backstories to these men. Ambrose tells both sides of the story in an almost real time recount that it reads like a movie being played out. One gets the feeling there weren't really any good guys or bad guys. The Brits were all volunteers and with the exception of a few zealous Nazis, the Germans were there under duress, many of them conscripted from other nation's armies the Germans had conquered.
  
  The biggest surprise of all is how after the war many of these British and German men who had faced each other and shot at each other became lifelong friends in the years that followed, some of them looking at each other and joking about what terrible shots they were.
  
  The next time I play this scenario in Memoir '44 it will be with more seriousness, and I'll see it much more than a collection of tiny plastic soldiers.
• 
  Silvana

  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 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, Normandy, 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.
  
• 
  gemsbooknook Geramie Kate Barker

  ‘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 adventures.’
  This book was fantastic.
  After having read; and loved, both Band Of Brothers and The Victors by Stephen E. Ambrose, I was excited to dive into this book. I am happy to save that it didn’t disappoint.
  With so many different battles taking place during the course of WWII, I am sad to say that before reading this book I had never heard of Pegasus Bridge and its significance to the success of D-Day and the war as a whole.
  One of the things I love most about Stephen E. Ambrose’s books is the amount of detail he goes into and this book was no different. Readers get to learn virtually everything about this battle from its conception through to the actual battle and the aftermath. This kind of detail is what made this book so great.
  Stephen E. Ambrose has complemented the information in this book with his compelling writing and emotional connection to the soldiers whose story he is telling. Where some military history books can be slow and at times weighed down by numbers and statistics, Ambrose has managed to keep the human element of the battle at the forefront which makes it very difficult to put this book down.
  Pegasus Bridge by Stephen E. Ambrose is a must-read for anyone interested in military or WWII history.
  
  Geramie Kate Barker
  gemsbooknook.wordpress.com
• 
  John Nevola

  This book is only about 150 pages short but it is long on information and eyewitness accounts of one of the most pivotal battles of D-Day.
  
  The British 6th Airborne was tasked with the mission to secure the left flank (the easternmost flank) of the Normandy Beachhead. Major John Howard and 181 members of the 2nd Ox and Bucks Regiment were ordered to capture and hold a bridge over the Orne River and an adjacent canal. It was the key strongpoint in defending this flank.
  
  This is the story of how Howard's men trained and trained and executed the plan with a daring glider assault, landing only yards away from the bridge. How they seized this bridge and held on until reinforced is the stuff of legend.
  The book is fully indexed, well sourced and contains the original orders given to Major Howard. Not much has been written about this exploit so this is a must read for anyone curious about the battle of Pegasus Bridge.
  
  One can only wonder what might have happened at Arnhem if a group of gliders had dared to land as close to "the bridge too far".
  
• 
  Wulf

  This is a good book on the battle, though i felt when he went to the overall aspect he failed short, such as saying that Goodwood intended to liberate Paris which is an outright lie, or saying that the british remained static until goodwood, or saying that Eisenhower chose normandy, which clearly it wasnt him, or saying that the british industrial output was smaller than the german, which was a misconception as well. In fact the production of tanks in britain was very similar to the german, and you can see it when you compare the production of both.
  
  Coudnt help but wonder that all these mistakes were part of that good old tradition to diminish the british overall war effort, specially on normandy. Considering that on the intro Ambrose is all about Eisenhower and etc), i take it as correct.
  
  His writing on the action and the preparation for pegasus bridge was good though, and the battles very well told. Id give it a 4 star but not for those issues i raised, which given the small size of the book, are also a small portion.
• 
  Adam

  A detailed recounting of a small piece of the D-Day invasion, a midnight glider attack on a strategically crucial bridge by an elite British unit. Pretty amazing how they pulled it off.
• 
  Rob Roy

  Two bridges gave access to the British left flank at Normandy. These bridges need to be seized and held for the success of the invasion. The book is about the men of Company D of the British Airborne who were the first allied soldiers to land in Normandy, and they took and held those bridges. While it is a story of heroics, it is also a storey of planning and leadership. It is also about free men fighting those who are not.
• 
  Chuck

  The story of England's Company D and D-Day and their taking of the Pegasus Bridge in France.
• 
  Eric Hadlock

  Good simple book on a very i.pactful company on D Day. Insightful, and let's you k ow just what it means to be in an airborne unit.
• 
  Bryan

  History written like a novel. Very enjoyable and informative! My first book by this author!
• 
  Ralph

  "At a maximum, failure at Pegasus Bridge might have meant failure for the invasion as a whole, with consequences for world history too staggering to contemplate." ~Stephen E. Ambrose
  
  Pegasus Bridge is a lesser known book by Ambrose on a lesser known battle on D-Day. It is likely lesser known to me because the British are the heroes of this story. This book tells of the British airborne troops that landed in gliders in the early hours of D-Day. They were the first to arrive on this historical day. They took over this bridge as it was a key bridge for the Nazi army. The Brits' mission was to seize the bridge to protect the Allied flanks on the beaches. If the Nazis would have been able to cross that bridge with their tanks they could have just parked on the beaches and made life a lot worse for the Allied forces. It was also a key bridge to bring the Allied forces deeper into France so they had to take it without it being destroyed.
  
  As usual, Ambrose's writing style is superb. His account reads like a story or even a movie script. The armies on both sides had been training for two years for this very day. The Nazis had the better guns and artillery and they had already deeply entrenched themselves ready for an attack. The Brits had two key advantages: the element of surprise and a just cause. I heartily recommend this book on heroism and true grit. I have read a handful of Ambrose books and none have disappointed. I plan to eventually read them all.
• 
  Shaun Wallace

  Stephen Ambrose is not a historian. Lets get that straight to start with. He writes historical novels. Reading Ambrose's books, you would be led to think that all US commanders were brilliant, British commanders were utterly useless and only US soldiers were really fighting.
  
  Compared to any other historian his books are simply not factual. They are aimed at a mass market for easy consumption, fitting in with the Hollywood myth of the US winning the war on its own. Never mind it was forced into it, while China, the UK and Asia had been fighting for two years prior to this. It would not be so bad if his books at least stuck to the facts, but they don't. So many veterans have complained about how inaccurate his books are, but US readers take them as gospel and treat him as a real historian.
  
  Compared to Max Hastings, Simon Sebag Montefiore, Robert Service, Alan Bullock, Peter Ackroyd, Antony Beevor, William Shirer, Thomas Asbridge, John Keegan, Neil Barber, Cornelius Ryan, John Toland and others, Abrose is little more than a novelist, picking his facts to suit his narrative and story. If you are really interested in Military History, read any of these authors, but stear well clear of Mr Ambrose's pseudo history.
  
  SW
• 
  Tom

  This is the story of one company's effort in the vanguard of D-day. It tells the story in excellent detail, how they were developed into elite soldiers, how their competitive edge was honed, and how they led the assault to take and hold 2 vital bridges.
  
  The story is beautifully told, with great detail and character. D Company were warned in the briefing that they must not tell anyone about the nature of their training or mission on pain of being discharged from the mission - that night Wally Parr was telling his wife the news on the phone. The story is told from several viewpoints - Major John Howard tells that the men were greatly cheered by the delivery 2 days before D-day of escape packs (hidden compasses, etc) and French Francs. Wally Parr notes that the Francs were all gambled away within a couple of hours.
  
  I thoroughly enjoyed this - a very approachable book on a very complex event.
• 
  Xan

  Ningún plan de combate resiste al primer contacto con el enemigo, esta es una máxima militar que cualquier aficionado al género habrá leído muchas veces. La historia del puente Pegasus es la de una pequeña escaramuza que posiblemente cambió el destino del desenlace del Día D, contada a partir de los relatos de los supervivientes de los dos bandos, incidiendo tanto en la pericia de los paracaidistas entrenados para la misisón y los golpes de suerte que, de un modo u otro, son los que deciden el resultado de la batalla.
  Sigue el ejemplo de
  Cornelius Ryan en la forma de narrar la batalla y sus preparativos, aunque no llega a estar a su nivel. Aún así es mucho más ameno que otras obras de historia bélica.
• 
  David

  I love this book. It is one of Ambrose's best works. It moves very quickly and is quite clear. I own an eBook, I've owned a trade paperback, and I own the audiobook. He is good enough to point out some of the problems with the segments in the film, The Longest Day, covered by this book. It is long enough to get a sense of the key players. I will fault his description of the poor quality of British firearms. First, no Western Allie had a real answer to the German MG-42. The MG-42 was about the best light machine gun used during the war. I don't know if I'd make the same claim for the German K98 vs the British Enfield. None the less, a fine work.
• 
  Bonnie_blu

  The need to capture the Pegasus bridge was of supreme importance in the Allied effort to free Europe. I have read a great deal of WWII history, but have never come across any discussion of this mission. Ambrose, as usual, does an excellent job of detailing the importance of the bridge to the success of D-Day and beyond. The book provides an almost minute-by-minute account of a 24-hour period as the British soldiers prepare, launch, and complete the mission. They were brave men who were going into the unknown behind enemy lines, knowing that they were all that stood between the Nazis controlling the bridge and the Allies having a clear path into enemy territory. An exciting read.
• 
  Mike

  I'm a glider pilot and fascinated at how precisely the Glider Pilot Regiment was able to land the troops at the target. Especially considering what ungainly monsters these WWII gliders were. The stories here cover both sides of the battle and are standard Ambrose, humorous, poignant, interesting. He was a favorite historian. The Brits in combat are unequaled in their coolness under fire. They also tell great stories. A very good read.
• 
  Mahlon

  Pegasus Bridge is a lesser-known Ambrose gem, and a classic of the D-Day genre. It tells the story of one company(D company of the Ox and Bucks British Light Infantry) and their commander, Major John Howard. They were tasked with capturing and holding two key bridges, that according to Ambrose would ensure the success of the entire Normandy invasion. Landing in gliders in the pre-dawn hours of June 6th, they became the first allied soldiers to set foot on French soil.
• 
  Michael Wilson

  An outstanding account of WW II. The heroism and audacity of the move on Pegasus Bridge is a fascinating read. Ambrose scores great interviews with people from both sides of the conflict.