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Title: Abundance of Valor

Subtitle: Resistance, Survival, and Liberation: 1944-45

Author: Will Irwin

Narrator: Michael Prichard

Format: Unabridged

Length: 12 hrs and 53 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-02-10

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 16 votes

Genres: History, Military

Publisher's Summary:

The operation known as "Market Garden" - made famous in the book and film A Bridge Too Far - was the largest airborne assault in history up to that time. A high-risk Allied invasion of enemy territory that has become a legend of World War II, it still invites criticism from historians. Now a thrilling and revelatory new book re-creates the operation as never before, revealing for the first time the full adventures of the bold "Jedburgh" paratroopers whose exploits were almost unimaginably risky and heroic.

Kicked off on September 17, 1944, Market Garden was intended to secure crucial bridges in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands by a parachute assault conducted by three Allied airborne divisions. Capture of the bridges would allow a swift advance and crossing of the Rhine by British ground forces. Jedburgh teams - Allied Special Forces - were dropped into the Netherlands to train and use the Dutch resistance in support of the larger operation. Based on new firsthand testimony of survivors and declassified documents, Abundance of Valor concentrates on the three teams that operated farthest behind enemy lines, the nine men whose treacherous missions resulted in deaths, captures, and hair-breadth escapes.

Abundance of Valor portrays with stunning verisimilitude the experiences of Lieutenant Harvey Allan Todd, who fought from a surrounded position against overwhelming numbers of the enemy before surviving capture, near starvation, interrogation, and solitary confinement in German POW camps, and Major John "Pappy" Olmsted, who made a hazardous journey, in disguise, from safe house to safe house through enemy territory until finally reaching friendly lines.

Critic Reviews:

[Irwin] vividly recounts many varieties of WWII experience.... A collection of well-told war stories. (Publishers Weekly)

Members Reviews:

Terrific!

Still reading this, but it comes across like a novel. GEN Brown (former USSOCOM CDR) puts his endorsement on this one and I'd categorize his praise to be selective on most things.

Harrowing tales of the OSS

"Abundance of Valor" is a fascinating new look at Operation Market-Garden, the Allied airborne mission to facilitate the push across the Rhine River. Will Irwin, a retired Special Forces veteran, gives us an insightful look at the operations of three different OSS teams and their efforts to coordinate activity with the Dutch resistance.

Irwin tells the story with adventurous gusto and a critical eye. The story revolves around two characters: LT Harvey Allen Todd and MAJ John Olmstead, both Americans in serving with the legendary "Jedburghs" in the ETO. Although he chronicles their heroic deeds, Irwin is quick to point out that Jedburgh operations were far from perfect. Olmstead lost vital enemy plans and Todd found himself imprisoned in the same POW camp he was expected to liberate.

We also see that Market-Garden was especially hard on the Jedburghs. German infiltration of the Dutch resistance led to several British agents being captured by the Wermacht. Other agents were parachuted into areas heavily fortified by enemy troops. And of the nine Jedburghs who penetrated the farthest into German territory, two were captured, three were killed, and three were wounded - leaving only one operative left to complete his mission.