Abundance of Valor: Resistance, Survival, and Liberation: 1944-45 [Audiobook, CD, Unabridged] [Audio CD]

Will Irwin (Author), Michael Prichard (Narrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 12, 2010

The operation known as "Market Garden"-made famous in the book and film A Bridge Too Far-was the largest airborne assault in history up to that time. A high-risk Allied invasion of enemy territory that has become a legend of World War II, it still invites criticism from historians. Now a thrilling and revelatory new book re-creates the operation as never before, revealing for the first time the full adventures of the bold "Jedburgh" paratroopers whose exploits were almost unimaginably risky and heroic.Kicked off on September 17, 1944, Market Garden was intended to secure crucial bridges in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands by a parachute assault conducted by three Allied airborne divisions. Capture of the bridges would allow a swift advance and crossing of the Rhine by British ground forces. Jedburgh teams-Allied Special Forces-were dropped into the Netherlands to train and use the Dutch resistance in support of the larger operation. Based on new firsthand testimony of survivors and declassified documents, Abundance of Valor concentrates on the three teams that operated farthest behind enemy lines, the nine men whose treacherous missions resulted in deaths, captures, and hair-breadth escapes.Here in unprecedented detail are the heat and stench of fuel, oil, and sweat in the troop carriers going over; the remarkable (and misleading) initial success of the daylight parachute landings; and the deadly, brutally effective German response, particularly by crack SS armored units in the blood-soaked town of Arnhem. Abundance of Valor portrays with stunning verisimilitude the experiences of Lieutenant Harvey Allan Todd, who fought from a surrounded position against overwhelming numbers of the enemy before surviving capture, near starvation, interrogation, and solitary confinement in German POW camps, and Major John "Pappy" Olmsted, who made a hazardous journey, in disguise, from safe house to safe house through enemy territory until finally reaching friendly lines.With piercing criticism of the mission's ultimate failure from faulty use of intelligence-and Field Marshall Montgomery's distrust of the Dutch underground-Abundance of Valor is a brutally honest and truly inspiring account of fighting men in a noble cause who did their jobs with extraordinary honor and courage.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Will Irwin retired from the United States Army in January 2000 after a career of more than twenty-eight years, half of that in Special Forces. He received a B.A. in history from Methodist College and a master of military arts and sciences degree from the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. He has done graduate work in modern European history at the University of Kansas and has served as a research fellow at the RAND Corporation. He now works as a defense contractor. Born in Iowa, Irwin lives in Valrico, Florida. Michael Prichard has played several thousand characters during his career. While he has been seen performing over one hundred of them in theater and film, Michael is primarily heard, having recorded well over five hundred full-length books. During his career as a one-man repertory company, he has recorded many series with running characters---including the complete Travis McGee adventures by John D. MacDonald and the complete Nero Wolfe mysteries by Rex Stout---as well as series by such masters as Mark Twain, John Cheever, and John Updike. His numerous awards and accolades include an Audie Award for Tears in the Darkness by Michael Norman and Elizabeth M. Norman and several AudioFile Earphones Awards, including for At All Costs by Sam Moses and In Nixon's Web by L. Patrick Gray III. Named a Top Ten Golden Voice by SmartMoney magazine, he holds an M.F.A. in theater from the University of Southern California. Michael appears regularly on the professional stage, including as a member of Ray Bradbury's Pandemonium Theatre Company, performing such great roles as Captain Beatty in Fahrenheit 451, which became the second-longest-running production in the Los Angeles area. Bradbury himself dubbed Michael "the finest Beatty in history."

From AudioFile

After D-Day of WWII, British General Montgomery devised a radical plan to rush northeast, cross the Rhine, and enter Germany. Special Forces teams, named the Jedburghs, united with the Dutch civilian resistance to support the campaign. If successful, Operation Market Garden would have ended the European war in a few months. However, the Allied commanders' hubristic underestimation of Germany's resourcefulness caused a major defeat. In the beginning, narrator Michael Prichard must recite an overdose of unit numbers, foreign towns, and fighters. Later, with the POW biographies, he becomes the familiar and delightfully detached voice so popular with audio listeners. ABUNDANCE OF VALOR provides valuable insights into combat psychology. J.A.H. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Tantor Media; Unabridged,Unabridged CD edition (April 12, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400114233
• ISBN-13: 978-1400114238
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,612,177 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)