Customer Reviews

Pegasus Bridge

5 star:		(3)
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2 star:		(1)
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I thought this was a great book. Very well-written and exciting. It was a little short, which made for an excellent quick-read. I think Mr. Ambrose deserves some credit for writing on a relatively uncovered topic. That being said, those of us who choose to bash on his writing simply because it is allegedly simplistic at times really ought to ease up. Try writing a well-researched book yourself if you have such a problem with this well-written and exciting page turner.

The story of Pegasus Bridge has fascinated me for many years, ever since I read a small bit about it in The Longest Day. The first full unit dropped together on D-Day the piloting skills to get them almost on top of the target are incredible and their fight to "hold until relieved" makes for a very fascinating read with some great pictures to back it up.

You get the whole story from their training up to that fateful night and then the slow attrition as they were used as regular infantry after the invasion. All in all a great book.

Pegasus Bridge - located in a small area of occupied France. The British attack on this stronghold was critical for D-Day to occur, let alone succeed. A story of courage, resourcefulness, mateship and ingenuity - with humorous anecdotes.
Many familiar names of heroic deeds by many who went on to become stars of the British screen and stage. There are interesting insights into the rigidity in the German command which inhibited the independent decisions of senior officers.
An excellent book - easy to read - totally absorbing.

I have just finished reading this book tonight and it was a hard task to make it to the end.

For a historian that is as acclaimed as Ambrose I was really disappointed in the quality of this work. While the historical timeline of the actual assualt on the Orne crossings is accurate, the book makes light work of the other elements involved in this critical D-Day operation. At some points his simplistic treatment made me quite angry - for instance when describing the Whermacht command structure and the difference between Rommel and Rundstedt's operational decisions. He also seems to be a huge fan of F/M Montgomery and given the 20/20 nature of hindsight, I don't know why.

Ambrose's narative borders on the annoying at times and the disjointed nature of the switch between narative and quote is frustrating (although one could put this down to bad editing).

Equally annoying is Ambrose's penchant for repetition. He repeats 'ad nauseum' the process by which John Howard prepared D Coy for the coup de main operation. Likewise, he failed to instill any sense of urgency or danger in me as the reader - it was all very 'ho-hum' and I was looking forward to finishing it.

If you're looking for a book to explain this critically important operation then you can do far better than this offering.