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. 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. 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. Ambrose interviewed participants from both sides (and French civilians) and presents the results in a nicely organized fashion. Serendipity indeed.This is a straightforward, well-written modern military history. 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. Ambrose cites the inspiration for the book in his introduction he was leading a tour of WWII battlefields and had just finished inspecting the bridges.

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.

Pegasus bridge stephen e ambrose