Ambrose - Pegasus Bridge.

[Jack]

Whilst feeling sorry for myself this week :roll: I started the book Pegasus Bridge by Stephen Ambrose.

 

I have nearly finished it and I know that Ambrose has his critics but this is the first time that I have read my own country's story which I am rather embarrassed to admit to but my god, what a hell of a story and what men these guys were. The outcome of D-Day could of been very different if these men failed their mission.

 

The strange thing is not that many years ago, I worked the wood at Tarrant Rushton and it is still full of the supply roads and unloading bays. Tarrant Rushton isn't many mile from me - I am going to return to it and study it a lot closer.

 

Kev (now a member here, at a last) was kind enough to introduce me to the great nephew of Major John Howard last month :schocked:.

 

Can anyone reccomend a book about Pegasus that I should read as I think Ambrose book has many holes in it?!

[Joris]

I've read it too, great book but there must be better ones.

[Pete Ashby]

 

Kev (now a member here, at a last) was kind enough to introduce me to the great nephew of Major John Howard last month :schocked:.

 

 

 

I had the honour of sitting next to Major Howard at a Berks and Oxon MVT dinner on one occasion and also to listen to him giving a lecture at Pegasus bridge on a Normandy Tour in the 80's.

A real gentleman in every sense of the word. He left a lasting impression on me of what our officer class was really like in WW11. We owe him and all of them a huge debt for the freedoms we enjoy today.

 

Pete

[Snapper]

Ambrose himself was critical of some of his own research methods used in Pegasus Bridge which led to some minor errors. He was clearly driven by the desire to tell a massively important story regardless of the nationalities involved. We owe him an enormous debt because he has almost single handedly made popular WW2 history to a wider audience. Now, obviously. this was aimed primarily at the huge American market pefected in Band of Brothers; but there are good British writers out there telling our story. Some are actively attempting to debunk the myths perpetrated by the Americans about how they won the war with elan and vigour while we prevaricated and plodded in our snoppy parochial way. I will come back with some recommendations. As for the Band of Brothers, there was another group of elite fighting men dubbed with the same name. Nelson called his captains this and treasured them from the Nile to Trafalgar.

[Degsy]

It comes originally from Shakespeare, Henry V I think.

[Snapper]

Absolutely. We few, we happy few. we band of brothers. And he who sheds his blood with me this day shall be my brother be he e'er so base....etc etc. Churchill knew who he was aluding to with his own Few, didn't he!

 

If you want a British Band of Brothers try reading McCrae's Battalion, the history of the 16th Bn Royal Scots. It's a stunning book - the author temporarily escapes me but I will come back about this with some other stuff on books. The story starts in Edinburgh with the rise of Heart of Midlothian football club and how the team and Edinburgh and other places in the Lothians provided sportsmen to form the nucleus of a great unit covered in glory on the 1st day of the Somme and throughout the war. It is a brilliant work that will bring a lump to your throat.

[Snapper]

I've just got a book which is Major Howard's war diaries. Start reading tomorrow as soon as the 0700 pulls out of Westcliff. Will report as soon as....