This is vintage Stephen Ambrose storytelling from the days before he became a cottage industry and became caught up in arguments over who wrote what and when. It is also the rarely told story of a single company sized unit in a single important combat, specifically D Company (or Coy as the Brits often say) of the Oxford and Buckinghamshire Regiment here identified as "the Oxs and Bucks."

The regiment was assigned the role of glider-borne infantry as part of Britain's 6th Airborne Division. Their mission on D-Day, the 6th of June in 1944, was to seize and hold two bridges - one over the Orne River and the other across the adjacent canal. These waterways marked the left flank of the British landing beaches on D-Day and therefore the left flank of the entire Normandy invasion force. It was considered critical that these two bridges be captured intact and held in order to deny them to the use of German tank units in the vicinity and to preserve them for the eventual use of the Allied breakout from the initial beachhead. In the words of John Wayne as the American airborne's General Gavin - this mission was strategic.

Ambrose tells the story not just of the battle but of the preparations for the battle being made by both sides for some two years before D-Day. While his focus is primarily upon D Company and its commander, Major John Howard, through good research and a little luck he is also able to include in his narrative the viewpoint and experiences of the German troops and of the local French Resistance members in the vicinity of the bridge.

In part because they have long since disappeared from warfare, the glider troops do not seem to get the full share of credit they deserve. As is cited in a number of books on the subject, including this one, those paratroopers who found themselves riding the gliders came away unanimously prefering to parachute and some arguing that the glider troops weren't paid enough. Neither the glider troops nor the glider pilots wore parachutes, reflecting a bond between the cockpit crew and their passengers that whatever happened they were all in this venture together. Losses among the glider troops were high and often resulted from midflight failures of their aircraft or friendly fire from anti-aircraft guns on Allied ships or ground units that in the heat of combat failed to recall their orders or to recognize the aircraft as friendly. And then, of course, there were the losses in combat with the Germans. Ambrose does an excellent job in the story of this one company of setting out the arguments for using gliders and the details of how to use them successfully. This is a history, a biography and memoir, and almost a textbook on glider operations. ( )

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 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 ( )

D-Day’s first action--great drama, characters and history

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 with Harclerode's divisional history of the 6th, or Denis Edwards autobiography. ( )

This was a pretty good book by Stephen Ambrose but not one of my favorites. ( )