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The Pegasus Diaries: The Private Papers of Major John Howard DSO
John Howard’s name will forever be linked to the highly successful Pegasus Bridge assault by his glider-born company of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. His men regarded him with awe and his courage and toughness were bye-words. However this book reveals the human side of the man as well as providing a graphic account of the preparation, actual operation and aftermath of this iconic raid.
The Pegasus Diaries is a book that will be enjoyed by men and women alike, presenting as it does a complex man often torn between his high sense of loyalty to his men and devotion to duty.
The Pegasus Diaries is a book that will be enjoyed by men and women alike, presenting as it does a complex man often torn between his high sense of loyalty to his men and devotion to duty.
- GenresWorld War II
Hardcover
First published November 1, 2006
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50 people want to read
About the author
John Howard
1 bookMajor (Reginald) John Howard DSO (8 December 1912–5 May 1999) was a British Army officer who led a glider-borne assault on two bridges between Bénouville and Ranville in Normandy, France on 6 June 1944 as part of the D-Day landings during the Second World War. These bridges spanned the Caen Canal and the adjacent River Orne (about 500 yards to the east), and were vitally important to the success of the D-Day landings. Since the war the bridge over the canal has become known as "Pegasus Bridge", as a tribute to the men who captured it, while the bridge over the River Orne later became known as Horsa Bridge after the Horsa gliders that had carried the troops to the bridges.
Howard initially joined the British Army before the war, serving as a private and then a non-commissioned officer for six years before discharging in 1938 and joining the Oxford City Police. In 1939 he was recalled to the army following the outbreak of the war and quickly rose through the ranks to become a regimental sergeant major in the King's Shropshire Light Infantry. In 1940 he was commissioned as a second lieutenant and eventually rose to be a major in 1942, at which time he took over command of 'D' Company, 2nd Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. Before D-Day, Howard's company was selected to carry out the assault on the Caen and Orne River bridges and he became personally responsible for their training and the planning of the assault. During D-Day he led the company in a successful coup-de-main assault that gained control of the bridges and then held them until relieved. After D-Day, Howard commanded his company until September 1944 when they were withdrawn from the line. Due to the injuries he sustained in a car accident in November 1944, he took no further part in the war and was eventually invalided out of the British Army in 1946. After this he became a public servant before he retired in 1974.
His role in the assault on the bridges was detailed in a number of books and films since the war, and after he retired he gave a number of lectures in Europe and the United States on tactics and on the assault itself. He died in 1999, at the age of 86.
Howard initially joined the British Army before the war, serving as a private and then a non-commissioned officer for six years before discharging in 1938 and joining the Oxford City Police. In 1939 he was recalled to the army following the outbreak of the war and quickly rose through the ranks to become a regimental sergeant major in the King's Shropshire Light Infantry. In 1940 he was commissioned as a second lieutenant and eventually rose to be a major in 1942, at which time he took over command of 'D' Company, 2nd Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. Before D-Day, Howard's company was selected to carry out the assault on the Caen and Orne River bridges and he became personally responsible for their training and the planning of the assault. During D-Day he led the company in a successful coup-de-main assault that gained control of the bridges and then held them until relieved. After D-Day, Howard commanded his company until September 1944 when they were withdrawn from the line. Due to the injuries he sustained in a car accident in November 1944, he took no further part in the war and was eventually invalided out of the British Army in 1946. After this he became a public servant before he retired in 1974.
His role in the assault on the bridges was detailed in a number of books and films since the war, and after he retired he gave a number of lectures in Europe and the United States on tactics and on the assault itself. He died in 1999, at the age of 86.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 14, 2023
"You will hold until relieved" is the phrase that recurs along one of the most significant and perhaps most exciting sequences of the 1962 war film "The Longest Day". That sentence, pronounced insistently against the background of the action aimed at capturing the two bridges over the Caen Canal and the Orne River, bridges that would have safeguarded the eastern side of the invasion front, was the order given to Major John Howard of Company D of the Ox & Bucks regiment, transported by glider to capture the two bridges, in the early hours of June 6, 1944.
As was often the case with old movies, the role of Major Howard was given to a moderately successful actor, Richard Todd, who had been in the war and fought in that very action (but in another unit). But here I'm digressing, taken by my passion for everything related to Overlord, that is the landing in Normandy. What I present to you today is the original book that brings back the memoirs of the real Major John Howard, renamed "The Pegasus Diaries" by him and his daughter Penny Bates.
The book published by Pen & Sword is a look at an officer whose task was perhaps the most delicate of all those assigned to the airborne forces, because the counterattack of the German tanks could have arrived from the eastern side and would have wiped out the recently landed troops. Howard describes his life by relying on the notes in his journals. He is a British officer who has risen from the ranks, certainly not from Sandhurst or the specialized schools, and this is a detail that he highlights throughout the story, enjoyable in his military adventure. But the willpower, the iron application and the training lead him to be chosen for the most difficult task, the one that will lead him to undying fame and his decoration (the Distinguished Service Order). However, this book is not the story of those few hours near the captured bridges (fortunately with few victims) and of the following days when the unit was almost decimated (and Howard himself was injured). It is also the story of a man and a family in wartime England, of John and Joy and their families struggling with the hardships of an economy in full war effort. It seems incredible to say today, in which any person who performs a heroic deed receives awards, interviews, the possibility of changing their life. But in those days when heroism was daily, few would have recognized the importance of Howard and his action.
Howard is a proud man who often reveals an intractable character and who is supported by another heroine in the story, his wife Joy. He pays homage to her, because if those who went to fight were certainly exposed to risks, no less important was the role and the danger to which the women who remained at home were subjected. The love for the two young children, Terry and Penny (who oversaw the writing of the book) are reflected in the diaries in the same way.
This text was used to write the best book on the action of Pegasus (as the bridge over the canal was later renamed, in honor of the symbol of the 6th Airborne Division) or "Pegasus Bridge" by Stephen Ambrose, so whoever wants to know the whole action and not just the part played by Howard's D Company must refer to that text. However, the book is pleasant because one cannot help but empathize with Howard, a brave and also unfortunate man (he was the victim of a serious car accident at the end of 1944), who never pulled back and who only over the years saw his enormous role and the importance of its action recognized. The book is accompanied by beautiful photos that portray him with various members of his unit, names that became legendary, and with opponents (in the 80s of the last century), such as Hans Von Luck, commander of the German armored forces.
What more can I say, Howard was a great personality, a simple man and a great soldier, the book I reviewed is a must for anyone who wants to know the man who was behind the successful capture of Pegasus Bridge and the bridge over the Orne.
As was often the case with old movies, the role of Major Howard was given to a moderately successful actor, Richard Todd, who had been in the war and fought in that very action (but in another unit). But here I'm digressing, taken by my passion for everything related to Overlord, that is the landing in Normandy. What I present to you today is the original book that brings back the memoirs of the real Major John Howard, renamed "The Pegasus Diaries" by him and his daughter Penny Bates.
The book published by Pen & Sword is a look at an officer whose task was perhaps the most delicate of all those assigned to the airborne forces, because the counterattack of the German tanks could have arrived from the eastern side and would have wiped out the recently landed troops. Howard describes his life by relying on the notes in his journals. He is a British officer who has risen from the ranks, certainly not from Sandhurst or the specialized schools, and this is a detail that he highlights throughout the story, enjoyable in his military adventure. But the willpower, the iron application and the training lead him to be chosen for the most difficult task, the one that will lead him to undying fame and his decoration (the Distinguished Service Order). However, this book is not the story of those few hours near the captured bridges (fortunately with few victims) and of the following days when the unit was almost decimated (and Howard himself was injured). It is also the story of a man and a family in wartime England, of John and Joy and their families struggling with the hardships of an economy in full war effort. It seems incredible to say today, in which any person who performs a heroic deed receives awards, interviews, the possibility of changing their life. But in those days when heroism was daily, few would have recognized the importance of Howard and his action.
Howard is a proud man who often reveals an intractable character and who is supported by another heroine in the story, his wife Joy. He pays homage to her, because if those who went to fight were certainly exposed to risks, no less important was the role and the danger to which the women who remained at home were subjected. The love for the two young children, Terry and Penny (who oversaw the writing of the book) are reflected in the diaries in the same way.
This text was used to write the best book on the action of Pegasus (as the bridge over the canal was later renamed, in honor of the symbol of the 6th Airborne Division) or "Pegasus Bridge" by Stephen Ambrose, so whoever wants to know the whole action and not just the part played by Howard's D Company must refer to that text. However, the book is pleasant because one cannot help but empathize with Howard, a brave and also unfortunate man (he was the victim of a serious car accident at the end of 1944), who never pulled back and who only over the years saw his enormous role and the importance of its action recognized. The book is accompanied by beautiful photos that portray him with various members of his unit, names that became legendary, and with opponents (in the 80s of the last century), such as Hans Von Luck, commander of the German armored forces.
What more can I say, Howard was a great personality, a simple man and a great soldier, the book I reviewed is a must for anyone who wants to know the man who was behind the successful capture of Pegasus Bridge and the bridge over the Orne.
August 4, 2008
I might be biased because it's about my great-uncle.... but I enjoyed every page of this astonishing account.
May 21, 2014
An excellent look into the training and planning for the Pegasus Bridge assault during D-Day. Also a good look at life in wartime Britain.
October 20, 2016
Very interesting and in depth informations about the Pegasus bridge assault and the training leading up to it along with major John Howard's personal life during the war and before.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews