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Lädt ... The Pegasus and Orne Bridges: Their Capture, Defence and Relief on D-Dayvon Neil Barber
   Keine Keine aktuelle Diskussion zu diesem Buch.  atticusfinch1048 | Jun 8, 2014 |  keine Rezensionen | Rezension hinzufügen
This WWII history chronicles a daring airborne mission that was vital to the success of Operation Tonga, D-Day, and the liberation of France. When the British Army landed on Sword Beach in Normandy, their only exit eastward required passage across the River Orne and the Caen Canal. But the two bridges fording these waterways--the Pegasus and Orne Bridges--were heavily guarded and wired for demolition in case of a Germans retreat. Capturing these bridges would be next to impossible. Operation Deadstick, conducted by Major John Howard and his company of Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, was a superbly daring, brilliantly executed 'coup de main' assault. The glider-borne troops not only seized both bridges but faced a ferocious and prolonged German counterattack. Neil Barber, a military historian and expert in British airborne operations, uses extensive personal accounts to tell this incredible story of Allied victory. Covering events and operations from Ranville in the East to Benouville in the West, Pegasus and Orne Bridges chronicles the combat of the 7th, 12th and 13th Parachute Battalions and reinforcements such as the Commandos, seaborne engineers and the Warwicks. Keine Bibliotheksbeschreibungen gefunden. |
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 Google Books — Lädt ...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)940.541241History and Geography Europe Europe 1918- Military History Of World War II Operations and unitsKlassifikation der Library of Congress [LCC] (USA)BewertungDurchschnitt: (4.83)
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1
As I read The Pegasus and Orne Bridges by Neil Barber the seventieth anniversary of the D-Day landings are taking place. Just after midnight in the early minutes of 6th June 1940 the British Prime Minister and Normandy Veterans are at Pegasus Bridge with fireworks going off around him. Seventy years earlier some of those veterans were young men who captured the bridge the first of many successes that would take place that day. Today those men were driven to the bridge seventy years earlier they had either parachuted in or in the back of a glider.
This book is a gripping description of the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry and the 7th Battalion of the Parachute Regiment capture of the bridges over the Caen Canal and the River Orne. This book describes in detail the planning of the operations and their successful execution of those plans in what is a wonderfully readable account of that day.
One of the most important things in this book is that there are historical explanations of what was happening throughout the book which neatly dovetail with the words of the soldiers and officers on the ground of that day. This really gives a lot of resonance to their story rather than a bland account by a historian.
Pen & Sword Military Publishers really do cover Military History so well as they not only print books about the big battles and dates in war but also some of the stories that could easily be forgotten so easily as the men that participated in the various theatres of war are very few and their number dwindles by the year.
This book uses the words of the officers and men along with war time pictures and right now I can hear the voices of those men. My interest in this part of history is not just that I am a qualified historian but my own grandfather was a paratrooper who knew and trained many of the men that served their country and adopted country so well on 6th June 1944. This is a wonderful book that really should be in every library.
This book is a wonderful testament to those who fought to take and defend the bridges over the Caen Canal and the Orne River we owe them a debt of gratitude. This really is an important book to read and cherish. (