Pegasus Bridge - plan or fail...

I've just finished reading "Pegasus Bridge" by Stephen E Ambrose. It reminded me of what my generation seems to take for granted - that when it comes to heroes, there was a generation called upon to volunteer to be truly heroic.

In the early hours of D-Day 6 platoons of British paratroopers landed between the Orne River and the Caen Canal, far behind enemy lines, very much alone, and 5 hours ahead of the main landing party of around 160,000 Allied troops, with the aim of capturing and holding the two adjacent bridges - one of which became known as Pegasus Bridge. The importance of the sudden capture and hold of these two bridges INTACT cannot be underestimated in terms of the success of the D-Day landings and the liberation of Europe - which we are all still benefitting from.

They were landed by glider a few minutes after midnight and in a matter of minutes had taken both bridges, eliminated the guards and the threat of the bridges being blown, and established a defensive position which was never to fail. The bridges have remained liberated since 00:16, June 6th 1944.

This is a thrilling and sensitively-written true story. But what it has reminded me of is just how much training and preparation goes in to an operation of this kind. The men who took part in this raid were prepared meticulously and for every outcome over a number of months. They were trained physically through PT, sporting competitions and marches and runs in full kit. On one occasion they were taking part in exercises after which they marched the 130 miles back to base in their kit. They were trained with live ammunition, and in street fighting and the use of a multitude of weapons, including those of their enemy. Their leaders went over in meticulous detail the plans for the evening and preparations if anything (and everything) could go wrong. They also knew the tolerances of the mission, when it was likely to fail, what would be the likely outcome of that failure, and how to rescue it from a complete breakdown.

Each of the platoons was drilled time and again on the same operation, with different variations of the platoons doing different jobs and with different platoon strengths. They even ran mock attacks on similar bridges in the West Country with Umpires calling the outcome of the various engagements. (This caused one of the platoon leaders on the actual attacks to look for the Umpires on the bridge in D-Day itself!) They did this until they were bored by the exercises, drills, runs, and were at such a state of readiness, as to almost be a danger to themselves.

And so I ask myself this question - and it comes from a humbled respect for these men who threw every ounce of themselves into the task they faced - if the liberation of Europe means this much to each individual in each platoon, how much more do we need this level of application and preparation for the liberation of souls?

We need to approach the task laid before us with the same level of seriousness, preparation, understanding of the intricacies and difficulties we face, knowledge of the terrain and tolerances of the mission, intimate knowledge of the troops we command and the enemies we face, the weapons we wield and the capabilities of counter-attack and the inevitable fog of war. We also need to realise that each of the encounters we have will inevitably change us in ways that we cannot begin to imagine. Casualties are inevitable, and each one is a dear friend with whom we have trained and shared our lives.

We trust to the Commanding Officer that He knows what He is doing, and that He puts us in harms way for His own glory and purposes, and that we may always remember the greater good to which He has called us.