Allied para drops into Normandy

Interesting topic. Ambrose, for his D-Day book did rely heavily on transcripts held by the Eisenhower Centre. This is a fact he does admit. The Airborne trooper throwing himself out the door on June 6th wouldn’t have given a damn about the experiences of the TCG pilots, he had enough on his mind. It was hard enough getting into the aircraft laoded as they were with personal weapons, kit, grenades and the joy of their lives, the infamous leg bag. There only thought would be to get down safely and in the right place. The weight problems mentioned would, I imagine, considerably alter the handling characteristics of the aircraft. In turn, the TCG crews had to contend with the ever present threat of collision, navigation to the correct DZ and flak. I think allegations of cowardice should never be cast by someone who had the great good fortune not to be there. I think many of the TCG crews were veterans of operations in Italy and therefore had some experience.

Is it right for the TCG crews to sue Ambrose’s estate? Probably not, but if the allegation that Ambrose called someone leaving a message apologising for errors in his work, why didn’t he issue an apology in the next edition of his book?

The essential point is that the TCG crews did their best to get the airborne troops to the correct DZ’s and the Airborne troops did their best on the ground. That is all anyone can reasonably be expected to do. Without the efforts of all involved on June 6th, we may not even be sat here discussing this.

Regards,

kev35

I have to agree with Galdri that the writers of this web page actually put forward a balanced case,rather than being for thier own gain.However,I’d also agree that lawsuits surrounding events of 60+ years ago are a little pointless and can be disrespectful in some cases.
Correct me if I’m wrong,but from what I read,it seems as though the lawsuit is with Stephen Ambrose’s estate (Mr Ambrose passed away late last year.)In his book Band of Brothers,Ambrose makes blanket statements which basically claim that the TCG guys did a very bad job due to them being cowardly,badly trained and unproffessional etc,but the facts contradict this judgement.The problem is that Ambrose’s work is now taken almost as gospel due to his work being so highly acclaimed,so the TCG veterans can’t afford simply to shrug thier shoulders and accept the mistake of a historian because what Ambrose says has been widely read and is taken by the majority as absolute truth.The TCG guys run the risk of having thier reputation tarnished for all time if they don’t get it put right.
On this basis I would say that this law suit is one of the few of this type to trully be worth the effort,the TCG guys have my support.

SteveYoung,
I agree completly with you about the subject of law suites in this field.

How ever if you had chosen to read a little bit further than the first paragraph, you would have found a rathar well balanced account of what happened. Both from the pilots point of wiew as well as from the paras.

Oh for crying out loud.

The first paragraph of that website reads, and I quote: “Visitors to this website may be unaware that WW2 survivors of the various Troop Carrier Groups are contemplating a lawsuit against preeminent WW2 author and historian Stephen Ambrose. It seems they are offended by what they perceive as Mis-truths in what he wrote about the performance of T.C. pilots in delivering paratroopers to Normandy. The books in question are Ambrose’s “D-Day:June 6, 1944-The Climactic Battle of WW2”, and “Band of Brothers”, his company history of E/506th which was recently translated into a 120 million dollar miniseries for H.B.O.”

It really does sadden me that the lawsuit mentality has finally managed to reach into these annals of second world war history. To be brutally honest, after reading that paragraph, I chose not to read any further. It seems to me to be a vehicle for some nameless website owner’s personal gain, and as such, is denegrating the memory of the thousands of men who participated in that particular operation.

To return to the argument that the US Paras blamed the Troop Carrier Squadrons for missing the DZ’s, well lets face it folks, it was a mistake made at night, with limited visibility, far fewer (and less accurate) navigation aids than are available today, and it was in the middle of a bloody war. Mistakes happen. Activating lawsuits some sixty years after the event (and doubtless fuelled by greedy lawyers who haven’t the faintest idea of what these men went through, and who have obviously just spotted an opportunity to line their pockets even further) is going to serve no useful purpose.

I’m utterly disgusted. 😡