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Author: G. J. Dettore
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Published: 2016-07-01
Total Pages: 438
ISBN-13: 0811764877
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAs part of the famous 101st Airborne Division (the Screaming Eagles), the 321st Glider Field Artillery Battalion saw nearly constant action during World War II, from assisting the infantry by landing supplies and providing combat support to fighting on the front lines.
Author: Donald J. Rich
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
Published: 2013-01-18
Total Pages: 286
ISBN-13: 1603449620
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA member of the famed Screaming Eagles of the 101st Airborne Division, Donald J. Rich went ashore on D-Day at Utah Beach, was wounded in the bloody conflict at Carentan, landed in a flimsy plywood-and-canvas glider on the battlefields of Holland, and survived the grim siege with the "Battling Bastards of Bastogne" during the Battle of the Bulge. Glider Infantryman is his eyewitness account of how he, along with thousands of other young men from farms, small towns, and cities across the United States, came together to answer the call of their nation. It is also a heartfelt tribute to the many thousands who gave their lives in this struggle. Coauthored by Kevin Brooks, the son of Rich's best friend and World War II comrade, Glider Infantryman covers a span of nearly three years; his return home, five months after the war's end, as a toughened bazooka gunner and veteran of five campaigns. Rich's first-person narrative includes vivid coverage of the action, featuring an especially rare account of arriving on a combat landing zone by glider. Detailed, day-to-day depiction of some of the heaviest fighting in Holland follows, including the action at Opheusden, the center of the infamous "Island." Later highlights include the Battle of the Bulge, where Rich recounts his experiences in some of the hottest defensive fighting of the European Theater, including the epic tank battles at Marvie, Champs, and Foy.
Author: Robert Bowen
Publisher: Casemate
Published: 2010-08-31
Total Pages: 257
ISBN-13: 1935149903
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA member of the 101st Airborne’s Glider Infantry recalls WWII, from the horror of D-Day to the despair of Nazi captivity, in this compelling memoir. As World War II broke out, Robert Bowen was drafted into Company C, 401st Glider Infantry, 101st Airborne Division. Soon afterwards, he found himself storming Utah Beach amid the chaos of D-Day, through unfamiliar terrain littered with minefields and hidden snipers. Bowen was wounded during the Normandy campaign but went on to fight in Holland and the Ardennes, where he was captured. That’s when his “trip through hell” truly began. In each of Bowen’s campaigns, the 101st “Screaming Eagles” spearheaded the Allied effort against the Nazi occupation of Europe. At Bastogne, they stood nearly alone against the onslaught of enemy panzers and grenadiers. His insights into life behind enemy lines after his capture provide as much fascination as his exploits on the battlefield. Written shortly after the war, Bowen’s narrative is immediate and compelling. An introduction by the world’s foremost historian of the 101st Airborne, George Koskimaki, further enhances this classic work.
Author: James M. Fenelon
Publisher: Scribner
Published: 2020-05-12
Total Pages: 448
ISBN-13: 1501179381
DOWNLOAD EBOOK“Compellingly chronicles one of the least studied great episodes of World War II with power and authority…A riveting read” (Donald L. Miller, New York Times bestselling author of Masters of the Air) about World War II’s largest airborne operation—one that dropped 17,000 Allied paratroopers deep into the heart of Nazi Germany. On the morning of March 24, 1945, more than two thousand Allied aircraft droned through a cloudless sky toward Germany. Escorted by swarms of darting fighters, the armada of transport planes carried 17,000 troops to be dropped, via parachute and glider, on the far banks of the Rhine River. Four hours later, after what was the war’s largest airdrop, all major objectives had been seized. The invasion smashed Germany’s last line of defense and gutted Hitler’s war machine; the war in Europe ended less than two months later. Four Hours of Fury follows the 17th Airborne Division as they prepare for Operation Varsity, a campaign that would rival Normandy in scale and become one of the most successful and important of the war. Even as the Third Reich began to implode, it was vital for Allied troops to have direct access into Germany to guarantee victory—the 17th Airborne secured that bridgehead over the River Rhine. And yet their story has until now been relegated to history’s footnotes. In this viscerally exciting account, paratrooper-turned-historian James Fenelon “details every aspect of the American 17th Airborne Division’s role in Operation Varsity...inspired” (The Wall Street Journal). Reminiscent of A Bridge Too Far and Masters of the Air, Four Hours of Fury does for the 17th Airborne what Band of Brothers did for the 101st. It is a captivating, action-packed tale of heroism and triumph spotlighting one of World War II’s most under-chronicled and dangerous operations.
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Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
Published: 1991
Total Pages: 170
ISBN-13: 0938021958
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAuthor: James E. Mrazek
Publisher: Stackpole Books
Published: 2011
Total Pages: 514
ISBN-13: 081170808X
DOWNLOAD EBOOK"Long pursued by civilian thrill seekers and dare devils, airborne gliding came of age during World War II as one of that conflict's most dangerous combat operations. The armed forces of Axis and Allied nations developed gliders ... and flew them into battle at Eben Emael, Crete, Normandy, Arnhem, and Bastogne. [The author's] account brings to life both the men who carried out these perilous missions and the gliders that proved vital to the success of airborne attacks"--Page 4 of cover.
Author: Scott McGaugh
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2023-03-02
Total Pages: 279
ISBN-13: 1472852966
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe first major history of the American glider pilots, the forgotten heroes of World War II, by a New York Times bestselling author. A story of no guns, no engines and no second chances. This book distills war down to individual young men climbing into defenseless gliders made of plywood, ready to trust the towing aircraft that would pull them into enemy territory by a cable wrapped with telephone wire. Based on their after-action reports, journals, oral histories, and letters home, this book reveals every terrifying minute of their missions. They were all volunteers, for a specialized duty that their own government projected would have a 50 percent casualty rate. None faltered. In every major European invasion of the war they led the way. They landed their gliders ahead of the troops who stormed Omaha Beach, and sometimes miles ahead of the paratroopers bound for the far side of the Rhine River in Germany itself. From there, they had to hold their positions. They delivered medical teams, supplies and gasoline to troops surrounded in the Battle of the Bulge, ahead even of Patton's famous supply truck convoy. These all-volunteer glider pilots played a pivotal role in liberating the West from tyranny, from the day the Allies invaded Occupied Europe to the day Germany finally surrendered. Yet the story of these anonymous heroes is virtually unknown. Here it is told in full – a story which epitomizes courage and sacrifice.
Author: George K Mullins
Publisher: Memoir Books
Published: 2021-07
Total Pages: 282
ISBN-13: 9781937748388
DOWNLOAD EBOOKFoxhole is the story of one man's journey fighting in WWII
Author: George Koskimaki
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2013-05-07
Total Pages: 419
ISBN-13: 1480406589
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA collection of eyewitness accounts of the Normandy landings that “gives you the [feeling] that you are there during the frenzied first hours of the invasion” (Kepler’s Military History Book Reviews). Many professional historians have recorded the actions of D-Day but here is an account of the airborne actions as described by the actual men themselves, in eyewitness detail. Participants range from division command personnel to regimental, battalion, company, and battery commanders, to chaplains, surgeons, enlisted medics, platoon sergeants, squad leaders and the rough, tough troopers who adapted quickly to fighting in mixed, unfamiliar groups after a badly scattered drop. And yet they managed to gain the objectives set for them in the hedgerow country of Normandy. This book is primary source material. It is a “must read” for anyone interested in the Normandy landings, the 101st Airborne Division, and World War II in general. Hearing the soldiers speak is an entirely different experience from reading about the action in a narrative history.
Author: Cornelius Ryan
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2010-02-16
Total Pages: 352
ISBN-13: 1439126461
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe unparalleled, classic work of history that recreates the battle that changed World War II—the Allied invasion of Normandy. The Longest Day is Cornelius Ryan’s unsurpassed account of D-Day, a book that endures as a masterpiece of military history. In this compelling tale of courage and heroism, glory and tragedy, Ryan painstakingly recreates the fateful hours that preceded and followed the massive invasion of Normandy to retell the story of an epic battle that would turn the tide against world fascism and free Europe from the grip of Nazi Germany. This book, first published in 1959, is a must for anyone who loves history, as well as for anyone who wants to better understand how free nations prevailed at a time when darkness enshrouded the earth.
