Customer Reviews

The First Men In: U.S. Paratroopers and the Fight to Save D-Day

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This is a good follow-up to Ruggero's book "Combat Jump: The Young Men who led the assault into Fortress Europe July 1943". As the title implies, it focuses on the airborne assaults into Normandy in June 1944. Ruggero is a former infantry officer who is also an experienced author. This makes for a great combination, as he writes about small unit actions in a way that makes sense tactically, but he avoids jargon or writing paragraphs like he is revising a tactics manual.

The strength of the book is that it is based on first person interviews with American participants in the invasion. He focuses at squad, platoon and company levels and provides battalion and above details only as context. In this vein, the book is similar to Ambrose's "Band of Brothers", but Ruggero's subjects are the troopers of the 82nd Airborne "ALL AMERICAN" Division, with an emphasis on the 505th PIR. Ruggero's work may somewhat compensate for the interest spawned in the Screaming Eagles by Ambrose, Spielberg, Hanks, et al.

The reliance on interviews is also, sadly, a weakness, as Ruggero states that many of his subjects passed away between the publication of "Combat Jump" and the start of his research for "The First Men In". To augment the stories of the paratroopers who were interviewed, he relied on well known secondary sources such as Clay Bair's "Ridgway's Paratroopers" and Marshall's "Night Drop". He takes the time to discuss discrepancies between interviewee recollections and Blair's or Marshall's accounts of the invasion, but it would have been interesting to see what he could have done with some primary sources to supplement his research.

A minor complaint is that Ruggerro identifies SGT Alvin York as the 82nd's only WWI Medal of Honor recipient, when discusing the division's early history. This overlooks the achievements of LTC Emory J. Pike, the 82nd Division machine gun officer at Vandieres France on 15 September 1918. LTC Pike received a posthumous MoH for his heroism. Any trooper who has marched in the Division review knows Pike Field, named in his honor.

Overall, I recommend this one.

Ed Ruggero scored a hit with his previous book, "Combat Jump: The Young Men Who Led the Assault Into Fortress Europe, July 1943", and is likely to do so again with his latest effort - "The First Men In: U.S. Paratroopers Fight to Save D-Day". While "Combat Jump" Ruggero's story was focused on the first mass U.S. Army employment of airborne forces, namely the 82nd Airborne jump into Sicily, "The First Men In" is centered on the efforts of the 82nd in Normandy during the first couple days the invasion by the Allies in June 1944. In his 300 odd pages of prose Ruggero creates a vivid and human story of the first few days of paratrooper combat in Normandy. Almost the entire story is focused on the 82nd objectives of D-Day and their exploits to achieve them. Central to the story told here is the (now) famous little Norman hamlet of Ste. Mere Eglise and its immediate geographical and tactically important environs. Ruggero utilizes primary, secondary and personal interviews to weave his story from individual trooper to division commanders (Matt Ridgeway and Jim Gavin, in particular).

If the reader wants compelling combat prose this is it. Yet, if the reader is looking for more beyond combat Ruggero delivers on that count too! "The First Men In" starts with descriptions of the genesis of the 82nd (and American airborne forces in general), its leaders (mostly Gavin in this case), and first employment in Sicily. Ruggero also spends considerable valuable words giving the reader a lucid and concise glimpse into the planning, staging and training of, and for, Operations Neptune (the airborne portion of Overlord) and Overlord (the June 1944 invasion of Fortress Europa). Having done this the reader gets a greater appreciation for how `risky' and `controversial' the airborne portion of Overlord was to Allied leaders, and what was ultimately to be gained if Neptune was successful. Ruggero provides one of the clearest descriptions of Neptune that this reviewer has yet to read. The reader must remember that "The First Men In" is focused on the All Americans (82nd Airborne Div) and as such his descriptions of Operation Neptune and the subsequent combat in Normandy are not all inclusive of the airborne operations - the important exploits of the Screaming Eagles (101st U.S. Airborne Div) and British 6th Airborne Division are not covered in detail. Ruggero does not entirely ignore these components of Neptune, but rather gives large brush strokes to these players and events.

Beyond Ruggero's text to describe the planning and execution of Operation Neptune in the 82nd Airborne airhead, Ruggero devotes the final chapter of the book to giving the reader a few examples of what happened to some of the individual troopers discussed during the combat sections after the invasion. These snapshots of life (and death) after D-Day provide additional humanity to the story told in "The First Men In".

All in all "The First Men In" is a fabulous read, very well written and solidly researched. Worth a look by anyone interested in airborne operations in WWII. 5 stars.

Ed Ruggero has written an absolutely fantastic history of some of the most significant airborne operations surrounding the Normandy invasion. To nit-pick the selection of the book title or a minute detail of 82nd Medal of Honor history from World War I doesn't do justice to the otherwise meticulous research and master story-telling of this inspiring author. This well-written prose is fast-paced and as readable as any historical fiction. Ruggero is superb in his description of small unit airborne operations in World War II. In my opinion, much better than the previous standard set by MacDonald's World War II memoir COMPANY COMMANDER. And just as good as Vietnam small unit memoirs - McDonough's PLATOON LEADER and Moore and Galloway's WE WERE SOLDIERS.

I have a friend who was in the 82nd Airborne's A Company and was a Pathfinder. He was 19 years old. I bought it for him and read it first. I have seen all the movies and heard all stories about Normandy but to read this book made me realize just how really terrible the battle for the bridge was. I had no idea just what they faced. I had visited the site and still had no real understanding of the battle until I read this book. I have even more respect for Max than I did before. What a tale. Bob Morriss

I read this hoping to learn about the history of the paratroopers on D-Day and got more than I expected. It gives the history of D-Day, but it tells it in such an exciting, storytelling fashion that it gives you a first person feeling for how terrible those days were. The sacrifices our troops made in WWII were incredible. Let's never forget them.

This is an excellent and easy reading book; however, I would recommend that the reader be apprised of D-Day history before reading it. It gives a wonderful insight to one more important advance into Normandy!

Ed Ruggero has established himself as a major expert on airborne operations in Europe in World War II. The First Men In is a worthy follow up to Combat Jump!

This account of the D-Day airborne operations provides much needed depth and breadth to the contribution of the paratroopers to the successful D-Day inavsion.

While the book leans toward the contribution of the 505th PIR, the only combat-experienced regiment to make the drop, it pays appropriate tribute to all the units who were mis-dropped and still expected to complete their missions. And they did!

Expecting to be relieved in short order for more important missions, the elite airborne forces were bled white for over a month in the hedgerows of Normandy operating as regular infantry - even though they were at best light infantry designed to hit fast and move. Ruggero pulls no punches documenting the misuse of the airborne troops while at the same time acknowledging and honoring their achievements.

Liberally cited and fully indexed, this work represents a significant contribution to the history of World War II. It served as an important reference work in the construction of my historical novel.

John E. Nevola
Author of The Last Jump - A Novel of World War II

The title of this book is a little misleading. This book is really on the 82nd - All American - Airborne Division. In fact you could say that it does for the 82nd what 'Band of Brothers' and the books by and about Dick Winters did for the 101st. The title is misleading because the 101st and the Brits went in at the same time as the 82nd.

That aside, the story of the actions of the 82nd covering the exits from Utah beach do make for a very good story. If you remember the movie 'The Longest Day,' the paratroopers coming down in the town where the Germans were fighting a fire, and the colonel (John Wayne) with a broken bone riding the ammo cart, were all about the 82nd. Here those stories and more are very well told.

The story begins with training and organization in England before D-Day and continues until about a week after D-Day when the troops from Utah Beach cought up to them. This did not, of course, end the activities of the 82nd. They were there in the drop in Holland, and during the Battle of the Bulge held the northern shoulder. But this is at least one more book.

"I don't know a better place than this to die." When Lt. John "Red dog" Dolan scratched out this single line to a hard pressed squad leader at the La Fiere bridge, he simultaneously scribed his name into the short roll call of those Americans who have placed the love of their country and the freedom of its people ahead of their very own next breath.

I have read the account of Lt. Dolan at the little bridge over the Merderet in three other books of paratrooper history and none of them carry the weight and measure of Ed Ruggero's version in The First Men In. It is nearly impossible to read through chapter 12 and not find yourself gazing off into the ether, overcome by the willingness of these young men of the Greatest Generation to sacrifice themselves for less-great generations yet unborn.

While The First Men In is not a small unit combat history such as Band of Brothers, it follows several men - G.I. and officers - from their enlistment through their training, their midnight jump into the Cotentin and through the first days of the Battle of Normandy, delivering the intimate kinship with the characters that the reader so desires as well as the great sweep and desperate fear of near hopeless combat.

The First Men In is a book you will read more than once. In the way you might take a second look at a sunset, the heroism of the men in the pages compels you to turn and look over your shoulder again and again until the very last light fades, leaving you asking yourself at the last glint of purple if such a marvelous thing was really possible in the first place.

If you want to know why General Bradley would not land troops on Utah beach without these men, if you want to know why these men are correctly titled America's Guard of Honor, if you want to know why the local French have re-named the bridge at Chef du Pont the Pont du Capitaine Roy Creek, if you want to once again be warmed and comforted by the greatness of your country, read The First Men In.

It doesn'''t matte'r if you are into histo'ry or not, the book "the first' men in" by Ed Rugge'ro is the best book i have read.' It is about' the 82nd parat'roope'rs and the fight' to save D-'Day.' It is wonde'rfull'y write'n,' very descr'iptiv'e,' and just a reall'y fun and inter'estin'g read.' You learn' a lot about' the thing's that our boys did and exper'ience'd in the early' hours' of June 6, 1944,' and the days after'.' I reall'y recom'mend it. You devel'ope a stron'g relat'ionsh'ip with all the men, and the epilo'gue gives' you closu're with the all the men after' the book is over.' READ IT!'!'!'