Hold the Bridge: Heroes of the 82nd Airborne Book 5

By Eric Meyer and Todd McLeod

Allied armies sweep across France in a rollercoaster of military might. The campaign that began on D-Day is heading closer to Germany and the generals have a plan to get there quicker. To take and hold a number of bridges and clear the path to the German Reich. They launch Market Garden, an operation that will utilize vast fleets of aircraft and gliders to carry crack paratroops into Holland. If it succeeds, it will shorten the war. But if it fails...

First Platoon, Company B, drops into Holland to take the bridge at Nijmegen. The plan starts to unravel when they encounter a massive flak gun emplacement, an impenetrable obstacle guarded by elite panzergrenadiers. The 88mm flak guns are taking a heavy toll of troop-carrying C-47s and Waco gliders, and paratroopers are dying under the barrage of heavy shells.

PFC Ray Cassidy and his buddy Harry Byrd have a reputation for disobeying orders to get the job done, and this is no exception. Ignoring the platoon lieutenant, they hatch a plan to attack the panzergrenadiers using an ancient, but tried and tested ruse to lure them into a trap. The mission hangs in the balance, and there are still the flak guns to take care of before they reach the bridge at Nijmegen. A bridge guarded by panzers.

Heroes of the 82nd Airborne Book 5 – Hold the Bridge is the fifth shortread fiction set during the Second World War. The book is a collaboration between Todd McLeod and Eric Meyer, the bestselling author of more than fifty war novels.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Swordworks Books
• Release date: Feb 22, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005383589

Eric Meyer

An internationally recognized expert on the subjects of HTML, CSS, and Web standards, Eric has been working on the web since late 1993. He is the founder of Complex Spiral Consulting, a co-founder of the microformats movement, and co-founder (with Jeffrey Zeldman) of An Event Apart, the design conference series for people who make web sites. Beginning in early 1994, Eric was the campus Web coordinator for Case Western Reserve University, where he authored a widely acclaimed series of three HTML tutorials and was project lead for the online version of the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History combined with the Dictionary of Cleveland Biography, the first example of an encyclopedia of urban history being fully and freely published on the Web.

Book preview

HOLD THE BRIDGE

By Todd McLeod & Eric Meyer

BOOK 5 OF THE HEROES OF THE 82ND AIRBORNE SERIES

SHORT FICTION

Copyright 2020 by Todd McLeod & Eric Meyer

Published by Swordworks Books

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

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Chapter One

Private Ray Cassidy grimaced as they waddled towards the C-47 waiting on the tarmac. He was out of his normal environment as much as any man could be. Short and wiry, like most outdoorsmen, his skin was tanned and leathery. He was a guy who’d spent almost every spare moment in the outdoors, hunting. Frequently tracking an animal for hours before he lined up the perfect shot. Now he walked slowly, struggling to keep his balance because each man carried so much equipment it was impossible to walk normally. Overloaded with helmets, parachutes, packs, ammunition, and there was more. Every trooper was issued with a handgun, a Colt M1911, and it still wasn’t enough. Because of previous experiences with armor, each man carried a heavy anti-tank mine.

They must be kidding if they expect us to carry this kind of weight into battle, he grumbled.

His buddy, Private Harry Byrd struggled to keep up. He was pale and inclined to a degree of flab, unusual for an Airborne trooper. Yet underneath the flab lay solid muscle. At nearly six feet, he was tall, with blonde hair, a throwback to his Viking ancestors, including his piercing blue eyes. The total opposite of Cassidy, he regarded any place outside of a town as alien territory.

Maybe it won’t be so bad when we reach the bridge. All we have to do is hold it.

Yeah, against tanks.

We don’t know for sure they’ll have tanks.

You want to take a bet?

Harry shrugged. I guess not.

Cassidy glanced around the crowded airfield, and everywhere he looked,