Nothing But Courage: The 82nd Airborne’s Daring D-Day Mission—and Their Heroic Charge Across the La Fière Bridge

On D-Day, June 6, 1944, the United States 82nd Airborne Division parachuted into Normandy. The soldiers, led by General Gavin, were heavily armed but would be disadvantaged against German armored forces. Part of their mission was to capture a bridge over the Merderet River, near an old manor house known as La Fière, and hold it until troops from the central part of the invasion could get there. The bridge was a necessary conquest because there were limited routes out of Utah Beach, and Allied planners expected that a Panzer division would use this one to destroy the Allied bridgehead. Well-trained and courageous, the parachutists fought bravely against superior odds and ensured that this route out of the bridgehead would be blocked by the German forces and be usable for the advancing Allied army. Donovan (Shoot for the Moon: The Space Race and the Extraordinary Voyage of Apollo 11) takes readers through the three harrowing days of the fight for the bridge in great detail, working from original sources and first-person narratives. The book is thoroughly footnoted, with an extensive bibliography.