Nothing but Courage

The 82nd Airborne's Daring D-Day Mission--and Their Heroic Charge Across the La Fiere Bridge

By: James Donovan

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eText | 27 May 2025

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From the bestselling author of Shoot for the Moon and A Terrible Glory comes the dramatic story of the courageous paratroopers and glidermen of the 82nd Airborne, who risked their lives to seize and secure a small, centuries-old bridge in France that played a pivotal role in the success of D-Day

In June 1944, German and American forces converged on an insignificant bridge a few miles inland from the invasion beaches. If taken by the Nazis, the bridge might have gone down in history as the reason the Allies failed on D-Day.

The narrow road over it was each side's conduit to victory. Continued Nazi control over the bridge near an old manoir known as La Fiere—one of only two bridges in the region capable of supporting tanks and other heavy armor—would allow the Germans to reinforce their defenses at Utah Beach, one of the five landing areas chosen for Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Nazi-held Europe. But because control of the bridge was also essential to moving U.S. troops inland and off the beach, it could not simply be destroyed: it had to be taken—and held—by the Allies.

This was part of the formidable mission of the 82nd Airborne, whose lightly armed but superbly trained troopers had dropped behind—and into—German lines five hours before the seaborne assault on Utah. While blocking enemy reinforcements, they had to seize and secure avenues of approach from the beaches to the interior of Normandy, including two bridges over the modest Merderet River and the key crossroads village of Sainte Mere Eglise. Failure would give Hitler enough time, and the opportunity, to build up the resources necessary to defeat the invasion and turn the tide for the Nazis. The village was taken early on D-Day, and the 82nd endured repeated attacks by much larger German forces. But the bridge at La Fiere became a bloody three-day standoff against tanks and artillery that culminated in a near-suicidal charge across it and the narrow 500-foot causeway beyond—straight into the teeth of a fierce German defense ordered to hold it to the last man.