The First Men in: U.S. Paratroopers and the Fight to Save D-Day

by Ed Ruggero

Book Overview

In the hours before the D-Day landing, their brilliant success behind enemy lines changed the course of history.

In the tradition of Steven Ambrose's D-Day and Band of Brothers, The First Men In tells the remarkable story of the American paratroopers who took on one of the most important and dangerous missions of World War II. On the eve of D-Day, the 82nd Airborne Division parachuted into key positions along the Normandy coast, spearheading...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060731281
• ISBN13: 9780060731281
• Release Date: June 2006
• Publisher: Harper
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 1.36 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A welcome addition to WWll history

This is an excellent and easy reading book; however, I would recommend that the reader be apprised of D-Day history before reading it. It gives a wonderful insight to one more important advance into Normandy!

A Great book of history that reads like a novel

Ed Ruggero has written an absolutely fantastic history of some of the most significant airborne operations surrounding the Normandy invasion. To nit-pick the selection of the book title or a minute detail of 82nd Medal of Honor history from World War I doesn't do justice to the otherwise meticulous research and master story-telling of this inspiring author. This well-written prose is fast-paced and as readable as any historical fiction. Ruggero is superb in his description of small unit airborne operations in World War II. In my opinion, much better than the previous standard set by MacDonald's World War II memoir COMPANY COMMANDER. And just as good as Vietnam small unit memoirs - McDonough's PLATOON LEADER and Moore and Galloway's WE WERE SOLDIERS.

The First Men In: US Paratroopers and the Fight to Save D-Day

I have a friend who was in the 82nd Airborne's A Company and was a Pathfinder. He was 19 years old. I bought it for him and read it first. I have seen all the movies and heard all stories about Normandy but to read this book made me realize just how really terrible the battle for the bridge was. I had no idea just what they faced. I had visited the site and still had no real understanding of the battle until I read this book. I have even more respect for Max than I did before. What a tale. Bob Morriss

Really About the 82nd, Not all the First Men In.

The title of this book is a little misleading. This book is really on the 82nd - All American - Airborne Division. In fact you could say that it does for the 82nd what 'Band of Brothers' and the books by and about Dick Winters did for the 101st. The title is misleading because the 101st and the Brits went in at the same time as the 82nd. That aside, the story of the actions of the 82nd covering the exits from Utah beach do make for a very good story. If you remember the movie 'The Longest Day,' the paratroopers coming down in the town where the Germans were fighting a fire, and the colonel (John Wayne) with a broken bone riding the ammo cart, were all about the 82nd. Here those stories and more are very well told. The story begins with training and organization in England before D-Day and continues until about a week after D-Day when the troops from Utah Beach cought up to them. This did not, of course, end the activities of the 82nd. They were there in the drop in Holland, and during the Battle of the Bulge held the northern shoulder. But this is at least one more book.

Another Ruggero airborne drop on target!

Ed Ruggero scored a hit with his previous book, "Combat Jump: The Young Men Who Led the Assault Into Fortress Europe, July 1943", and is likely to do so again with his latest effort - "The First Men In: U.S. Paratroopers Fight to Save D-Day". While "Combat Jump" Ruggero's story was focused on the first mass U.S. Army employment of airborne forces, namely the 82nd Airborne jump into Sicily, "The First Men In" is centered on the efforts of the 82nd in Normandy during the first couple days the invasion by the Allies in June 1944. In his 300 odd pages of prose Ruggero creates a vivid and human story of the first few days of paratrooper combat in Normandy. Almost the entire story is focused on the 82nd objectives of D-Day and their exploits to achieve them. Central to the story told here is the (now) famous little Norman hamlet of Ste. Mere Eglise and its immediate geographical and tactically important environs. Ruggero utilizes primary, secondary and personal interviews to weave his story from individual trooper to division commanders (Matt Ridgeway and Jim Gavin, in particular). If the reader wants compelling combat prose this is it. Yet, if the reader is looking for more beyond combat Ruggero delivers on that count too! "The First Men In" starts with descriptions of the genesis of the 82nd (and American airborne forces in general), its leaders (mostly Gavin in this case), and first employment in Sicily. Ruggero also spends considerable valuable words giving the reader a lucid and concise glimpse into the planning, staging and training of, and for, Operations Neptune (the airborne portion of Overlord) and Overlord (the June 1944 invasion of Fortress Europa). Having done this the reader gets a greater appreciation for how `risky' and `controversial' the airborne portion of Overlord was to Allied leaders, and what was ultimately to be gained if Neptune was successful. Ruggero provides one of the clearest descriptions of Neptune that this reviewer has yet to read. The reader must remember that "The First Men In" is focused on the All Americans (82nd Airborne Div) and as such his descriptions of Operation Neptune and the subsequent combat in Normandy are not all inclusive of the airborne operations - the important exploits of the Screaming Eagles (101st U.S. Airborne Div) and British 6th Airborne Division are not covered in detail. Ruggero does not entirely ignore these components of Neptune, but rather gives large brush strokes to these players and events. Beyond Ruggero's text to describe the planning and execution of Operation Neptune in the 82nd Airborne airhead, Ruggero devotes the final chapter of the book to giving the reader a few examples of what happened to some of the individual troopers discussed during the combat sections after the invasion. These snapshots of life (and death) after D-Day provide additional humanity to the story told in "The First Men In". All in all "The First Men In" is a fabulous read, very well writt