Rating: 
Summary: Subject deserves something better
Review: "Pegasus Bridge", describes 6th Airborne Division's planning and execution of the seizure of a crucial bridge near Caen in the British invasion sector. Originally written in 1984 in time for the 40th anniversary of Neptune/Overlord, it is a straightforward retelling of this mission, relying extensively on participant's reminisces and memoirs. The most interesting part of the book is the first few chapters, where the commander Major Howard relates how he overcame the personal and institutional obstacles to train his company, and get this mission. In short that mission was to seize the bridge in a coup-de-main operation, and hold it until relieved by ground forces moving forward from the beaches. Otherwise, the story is really not much more than an extended magazine article in terms of what we learn about this operation, and the 6th Airborne Division's role in D-Day. While there's nothing quite like first-person accounts to give immediacy and personalize the action, they are always fret with dangers for historians. Memories fade (especially after some 40 years), chronologies can get confused, and sometimes one's own participation becomes somewhat more important than it was historically. (We're all the stars of our own lives-deservedly so.) At least two other popular histories, "The Longest Day" and "Overlord: D-Day and the Battle for Normandy" describe this battle and its relevance much better. The work itself is idiosyncratic as the author, an American historian, adopts British expressions and terms throughout his narrative-not just in the quotes and citations. Maybe his publisher insisted on this to aim the book at a British audience, but this seems like pandering to sell books to me.
As a way to get a post-"Saving Private Ryan"/"Greatest Generation" American readership to realize that the Allies also had a pivotal role in this campaign, and capture some oral-history it succeeds well. As far as adding anything significant to the battle or campaign, it's a mediocre work at best.
Rating: 
Summary: Up the Ox & Bucks
Review: "Pegasus Bridge" was the first Ambrose book I read. I had known the story of the British assault on the bridge forever known as Pegasus Bridge after reading and viewing "The Longest Day", but it was not until I read this book I really understood the rest of the story. The story of this small group of paratroopers is an important one for all who wish to read and study WW2 as it is a real test of the airborne force in this type of commando role and terribly important to the invasion of Normandy. Ambrose is in fine form in this, one of his earlier WW2 books, but he does not get that last star from me becuase he turns around and steals from himself, a lot from this very book, much later in his career. A good companion to this would be " Pegasus Bridge/Merville Battery" by Carl Shilleto for the Battleground Europe series.
Rating:
Summary: Up the Ox & Bucks
Review: "Pegasus Bridge" was the first Ambrose book I read. I had known the story of the British assault on the bridge forever known as Pegasus Bridge after reading and viewing "The Longest Day", but it was not until I read this book I really understood the rest of the story. The story of this small group of paratroopers is an important one for all who wish to read and study WW2 as it is a real test of the airborne force in this type of commando role and terribly important to the invasion of Normandy. Ambrose is in fine form in this, one of his earlier WW2 books, but he does not get that last star from me becuase he turns around and steals from himself, a lot from this very book, much later in his career. A good companion to this would be " Pegasus Bridge/Merville Battery" by Carl Shilleto for the Battleground Europe series.
Rating:
Summary: a good historical report that you'll read as fiction
Review: A great way to get the feeling af what has been that operation. I just would have liked more maps and tactical details instead of personal memories. If you are an ASL player and you own the Pegasus Bridge module this book will give you the historical background that makes the game mure fun.
Rating:
Summary: I loved this book!
Review: Ambrose is brilliant!!! He has a way of explaining the planning and telling what the soldiers went through. Amazing!!!
Rating:
Summary: A fast moving and elegant work and a rival to fiction.
Review: As a military officer I have had the great good fortune to meet the author and two of the protagonists in this account of a pivotal moment in the opening of the Battle of Normandy as well as being fortunate enough to travel to the site of most of the action. While Ambrose captures some of the exuberant personality of Maj John Howard, he most certainly excelled at recounting the herculean efforts leading up to the event -- the training, the organization, the bureaucracy -- and leading the reader through the night of hell endured by the troops on both sides as well as the terrified, suspicious, yet grateful civilians caught in the middle. What I liked most about the book (being an avid WWII history buff) is the immediacy of Ambrose's writing. When I traveled to Caen and saw the bridge's modern replacement and the adjacent glider landing fields where "Rommel's Asparagus" had been "planted" I knew instantly where I was and where the actions took place. I could easily trace from memory what had happened, to whom, and where. Ambrose has the capacity to make his spare prose come alive and cause the reader to see the panzers lumbering into the targeted intersection, only to be knocked out by a man's phenomenally skillful use of a woefully inaccurate weapon. It's all there in this small, rather inconspicuous book. I highly recommend this book for anyone who may be interested in learning some detail about what happened in one small area of the Norman countryside shortly after midnite, in the wee hours of the 6th of June, 1944. I might also recommend viewing a representation of Maj John Howard's exploits as a part of the movie, "The Longest Day." For those who have seen that film, this book will provide wonderful detail for enhancing their comprehension of the stunning complexity of the invasion by illustrating this one tiny piece of the invasion scenario.
Rating: 
Summary: too little, too late
Review: At last Ambrose begins to tackle the massive british contribution to victory. but it is a disappointingly short and skimpy look. Ambrose (and one notes, some US reviewers below)manages to recognise the vitory at the bridge, but understates the non US contribution overall. remember, approx 50% of all forces in Normandy were UK/Canadian - and far from failing, as one reviewer below has it, they held, and ground down, the bulk of the German forces in Normandy, enabling US forces to break out against weak opposition.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent-though some inaccuracies...
Review: Brilliant book- informative, detailed and painstakingly researched. I would also like to share my sadness at John Howard's passing...however, even Ambrose admits that not all the veterans who took part in the action agreed on what happened, but it is said that John Howard himself was not very happy about the amount of inaccuracies there were over the details of what happened that day. However, this should not overcloud the fact that this is a brilliant book and a must read for any historian. Stephen Ambrose has done it again...
Rating: 
Summary: Another Ambrose Success!!
Review: Buy this, read this, and keep it forever. Strategy, tactics, emotions, heroism...you name it, it's here. An extremely good book.
Rating:
Summary: Pure garbage.
Review: dry .... too dry
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