The acclaimed WWII historian’s “illuminating account of . . . an operation as strategically important as any fought on D-Day” (The New York Times Book Review). In the early morning hours of June 6, 1944, a small detachment of British airborne troops stormed the German defense forces and paved the way for the Allied invasion of Europe. Pegasus Bridge was the first engagement of D-Day, the turning point of World War II. It was a mission so crucial that, had it been unsuccessful, the entire Normandy invasion might have failed. In Pegasus Bridge, Stephen Ambrose draws on original interviews with British, German, and French survivors to present a thrilling, ground-level view of the battle. Ambrose traces each step of the preparations over many months to the minute-by-minute excitement of the hand-to-hand confrontations on the bridge. This is a story of heroism and cowardice, kindness and brutality—the stuff of all great adventures.