The 80th Anniversary Edition of Neil Barber’s “Pegasus Bridge” is an achievement of the highest order and a tribute to the men of the 6th Airborne Division and their actions during Operation Tonga at the beginning of Normandy invasion. As Barber himself points out in the forward, his goal was to allow the men to tell their own stories, allowing the action to flow chronologically, and placing the storied action of the seizure of Pegasus Bridge within the wider context of the Division’s mission to establish a bridgehead that could protect the captured bridges and hold the terrain until the arrival of ground forces from the invasion beaches. Barber promises a “soldier’s eye view” of the battle and he makes good on that promise. The focus is rightly on the soldiers’ experiences, both in preparation and execution, however Barber places their action in context. The result is simply outstanding.
Barber spends a significant portion of the early book explaining the planning, organization and training of the British airborne forces, particularly the 6th Airborne Division, as well as their final preparations for their departure to France. The action of the famous coup de main force under Major John Howard does not begin until chapter 7, however this upfront investment describes all the units involved in the operation, their leadership, roles and missions, and providing the reader with a greater understanding of how the action at Pegasus Bridge was a small element of a larger, well-coordinated airborne operation. Barber’s extensive use of the men’s recollections, in the field and during periods of liberty, gives the narrative an immediacy as though the mission had not occurred almost a century ago.
When the story shifts to the execution of the operation, the focus shifts to D Company, 2nd Battalion of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry as their mission to seize the Caen Canal and Orne River Bridges was the initial effort of the mission. Barber gives this phase of the operation the attention it deserves, making it the focus of chapter seven while addressing the reinforcement of D Company and the German reactions to the attack in chapters eight and nine. Despite this attention, Barber does not make the fight at the Caen Canal and Orne bridges the sole element of the story. He pays equal attention to the fighting at Benouville and Ranville throughout the remainder of 6 June 1944.
One of the real strengths of the book is the collection of appendices that comprise almost 20% of the book. Barber explores a variety of factors using these tools, such as challenges facing the defending Germans, the roles and composition of specialty forces and detailed examination of certain small unit actions. The appendices allow a full analysis of these subjects without disrupting the flow of the main narrative. The book is further enhanced with several black and white portraits of the men of the 6th Airborne Division interspersed throughout the book and contains an excellent notes section and bibliography. Exceedingly well done and highly recommended.
