内容简介

　　1944年9月17日，诺曼底登陆后的第11个星期日。

　　为了在圣诞节到来之前结束欧洲战场，志得意满的盟军指挥高层，决心对德军发动一场大胆攻势，代号“市场—花园”行动。这次行动由空降部队和地面装甲部队协同作战，战斗地点选在荷兰境内的阿纳姆市，那里有一座横跨莱茵河的大桥。夺下该据点，盟军就能跨越德国边境最后的天然屏障，直插德国腹地。

　　17日上午10点整，盟军近5000架战斗机、轰炸机与2596架滑翔机，组成两个巨大的空中队列，以纵深150公里、横贯4.8公里的惊人之势，向荷兰境内的德军阵地压去。二战史无前例的昼间空降突袭从这里正式开启。德国士兵惊恐而又敬畏地注视着35000万名盟军士兵从天而降；渴盼解放的荷兰平民向盟军热烈欢呼，他们确信胜利在望。然而，令所有人都没有想到的是，他们接下来将见证的，是盟军在欧洲战场上蒙受的一次空前惨痛的失败。

　　《遥远的桥》是描写“市场—花园行动”的典范之作。作者科尼利厄斯•瑞恩在身患癌症的情况下，坚持用3年时间寻访1200多人，从浩瀚如海的日记、信件、报告中追寻流逝的历史，补全了这场戏剧性战役不为人知的细节。美军王牌第82空降师第504伞兵团抢渡瓦尔河时的悲怆与坚毅，仓皇逃亡的阿纳姆平民面对家乡被炸成“巫婆的大锅”时的悲观与绝望，都从瑞恩的笔端缓缓流出，以冷静克制的力量，再现了这场壮烈的光荣背后令人心碎的悲剧。

　　作者简介

　　只要经历过战场，每个人都会对战争有着更为痛彻的思考，科尼利厄斯•瑞恩就是其中一位。

　　身为二战时期杰出的战地记者，瑞恩曾随同美国陆军第8、第9航空队参与14次轰炸行动，亲历诺曼底登陆，跟随巴顿将军的第3集团军挺进法国和德国，直至攻克柏林。在前线，瑞恩与成千上万的亲历者密切接触。不论是艾森豪威尔、巴顿、蒙哥马利这些军事天才，还是登陆诺曼底、参与市场-花园行动的年轻士兵，抑或纳粹将领海因里希、沦陷区的柏林市民，都在他的笔下保留了当时历史的真实记忆。《时代》周刊评论道，科尼利厄斯•瑞恩以近距离观察战争的眼光，历经鲜血和死亡的灵魂，完成了普通作家“不可能完成的任务”。

　　战争带来的伤痛，曾经深深嵌入亲历者的生命，让他们重拾那段记忆并不容易。从1956年起，瑞恩陆续奔赴德、法、苏联，耗时近20年寻找幸存者，在寻访5000多位见证人之后，最终完成这部杰作“二战史诗三部曲”。1959年《最长的一天》率先出版，立即在战后国家引起震动，人们纷纷致信，感谢瑞恩让他们头一次知晓，自己的爱人、朋友、邻居曾经在那个伟大的时刻经历过什么。

　　科尼利厄斯•瑞恩先后被授予克里斯托弗奖、意大利班加雷拉文学奖以及法国荣誉军团骑士勋章。1974年，他因癌症病逝。美国新闻界以他的名字设立特别奖项，以此致敬这位“站在新闻与历史写作交叉路口的巨人”。

　　董旻杰

　　资深战争史研究者，曾任“知兵堂”执行总编，目前主要从事战争史翻译、审校和编撰工作，著有研究阿登战役的代表作品《沸腾的雪：阿登反击战》。

Content introduction

September 17, 1944, the 11th Sunday after D-Day.

In an attempt to end the war in Europe before Christmas, the triumphant Allied commanders decided to launch a bold offensive against the Germans, codenamed Operation Market-Garden. The operation was coordinated by airborne troops and ground armored units and took place in the Dutch city of Arnhem, where a bridge across the Rhine River crosses the border. The capture of this stronghold would allow the Allies to cross the last natural barrier on the German border and push into the heart of Germany.

At 10 o 'clock on the morning of the 17th, nearly 5,000 Allied fighters, bombers and 2,596 gliders formed two huge air queues, which were 150 kilometers deep and 4.8 kilometers across the surprising trend to press the German positions in the Netherlands. This is where the World War II's first ever daytime airborne raids begin. German soldiers watched in horror and awe as 350 million Allied soldiers descended from the sky; The Dutch civilians, eager for liberation, cheered enthusiastically to the Allies, convinced that victory was in sight. What none of them expected, however, was that what they were about to witness was an unprecedented defeat for the Allies on the European battlefield.

The Bridge Far Away is a good example of the Market - Garden Operation. Cornelius Ryan, who was suffering from cancer, spent three years interviewing more than 1,200 people, tracing the history of the dramatic battle through a sea of diaries, letters, and reports. The sorrow and determination of the 504th Parachute Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division of the US Army when rushing across the Waal River, the pessimism and despair of the Arnhem civilians fleeing in panic when their hometown was blasted into a "witch's cauldron", are slowly flowing from Ryan's pen, and the heartbreaking tragedy behind this heroic glory is reappeared with calm and restrained power.

About the author

Cornelius Ryan is one of those people who thinks about war more acutely once they've been there.

As a distinguished war correspondent during World War II, Ryan flew 14 bombing missions with the U.S. Army's 8th and 9th Air Forces, witnessed the Normandy landings, and marched with General Patton's 3rd Army into France and Germany, leading to the capture of Berlin. On the front lines, Ryan had close contact with thousands of people who had witnessed it. Whether it is the military genius of Eisenhower, Patton, Montgomery, or the young soldiers who landed in Normandy and participated in the Market-Garden operation, or the Nazi general Heinrich, the citizens of Berlin in the occupied areas, all retain the real memory of the history of the time in his pen. Time magazine commented that Cornelius Ryan has accomplished "the impossible task" of an ordinary writer by taking a close look at the war, through the blood and death of the soul.

The wounds of war are deeply embedded in the lives of those who witnessed it, and it is not easy for them to regain that memory. From 1956, Ryan went to Germany, France, and the Soviet Union, spent nearly 20 years searching for survivors, and after interviewing more than 5,000 witnesses, finally completed the masterpiece "World War II epic trilogy." When The Longest Day was first published in 1959, it immediately sent shockwaves through the postwar country, with people writing to thank Ryan for letting them know for the first time what their loved ones, friends, and neighbors had experienced at that great moment.

Cornelius Ryan has been awarded the Christopher Prize, the Italian Literary Prize Bangarella, and the French Knight of the Legion of Honor. He died of cancer in 1974. The American press established a special award in his name to honor the "giant who stood at the intersection of journalism and history writing."

Dong Minjie

He is a senior researcher of the history of the war, and once served as the executive editor of the "Zhibing Tang". At present, he is mainly engaged in the translation, proofreading and compilation of the history of the war, and has written a representative work on the Ardennes Campaign, Boiling Snow: The Ardennes CounterAttack.