The Lost Paratroopers of Normandy

The Lost Paratroopers of Normandy
Author: Stephen G. Rabe
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2022-11-10
Genre: History
ISBN: 1009206427

The fateful days and weeks surrounding 6 June 1944 have been extensively documented in histories of the Second World War, but less attention has been paid to the tremendous impact of these events on the populations nearby. The Lost Paratroopers of Normandy tells the inspiring yet heartbreaking story of ordinary people who did extraordinary things in defense of liberty and freedom. On D-Day, when transport planes dropped paratroopers from the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions hopelessly off-target into marshy waters in northwestern France, the 900 villagers of Graignes welcomed them with open arms. These villagers – predominantly women – provided food, gathered intelligence, and navigated the floods to retrieve the paratroopers' equipment at great risk to themselves. When the attack by German forces on 11 June forced the overwhelmed paratroopers to withdraw, many made it to safety thanks to the help and resistance of the villagers. In this moving book, historian Stephen G. Rabe, son of one of the paratroopers, meticulously documents the forgotten lives of those who participated in this integral part of D-Day history.

No Better Place to Die

No Better Place to Die
Author: Robert Murphy
Publisher: Casemate
Total Pages: 267
Release: 2009-04-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 1935149881

The you-are-there story of one of the most ferocious small-unit combats in US history . . . As part of the massive Allied invasion of Normandy, three airborne divisions were dropped behind enemy lines to sew confusion in the German rear and prevent panzer reinforcements from reaching the beaches. In the dark early hours of D-Day, this confusion was achieved well enough, as nearly every airborne unit missed its drop zone, creating a kaleidoscope of small-unit combat. Fortunately for the Allies, the 505th Regimental Combat Team of the 82nd Airborne Division hit on or near its drop zone. Its task was to seize the vital crossroads of Ste Mère Eglise, and to hold the bridge over the Merderet River at nearby La Fière. Benefiting from dynamic battlefield leadership, the paratroopers reached the bridge, only to be met by wave after wave of German tanks and infantry desperate to force the crossing. Reinforced by glider troops, who suffered terribly in their landings from the now-alert Germans, the 505th not only held the vital bridge for three days but launched a counterattack in the teeth of enemy fire to secure their objective once and for all, albeit at gruesome cost. In No Better Place to Die, Robert M. Murphy provides an objective narrative of countless acts of heroism, almost breathtaking in its “you are there” detail. No World War II veteran is better known in 82nd Airborne circles than Robert M. (“Bob”) Murphy. A Pathfinder and member of A Company, 505th PIR, Bob was wounded three times in action, and made all four combat jumps with his regiment, fighting in Sicily, Italy, Normandy, and Holland. He was decorated for valor for his role at La Fière, and is a Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor. After the war, he was instrumental in establishing the 505th RCT Association. A selection of the Military Book Club

Trial by Combat

Trial by Combat
Author: Thomas M. Rice
Publisher:
Total Pages: 203
Release: 2004
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781418491307

This is a thrilling personal account of a paratrooper's experiences in the 1944 battle for Normandy. behind enemy lines six hours before the Allies stormed the beaches of Normandy on D-day. Rice doesn't sanitize or sensationalize his story; he tells us of the utter chaos of battle - the terror, the carnage, the horror, the folly of war. Words such as patriotism, courage, and honor are seldom written by Rice, but in the facts and eyewitness accounts presented here, we discover what genuine patriotism is, what courage consists of, and what a frightful price must sometimes be paid for honor.

Lions of Carentan, The

Lions of Carentan, The
Author: Volker Griesser
Publisher: Casemate
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2011-10-06
Genre: History
ISBN: 1612000061

Although it is known that Allied airborne forces landed into a German buzzsaw on D-Day, far less is known about the troops they encountered in the dark night of June 6, 1944. One of the formations they encountered was a similarly elite group of paratroopers, who instead of dropping from the skies fought on the defensive, giving their Allied counterparts a tremendous challenge in achieving their objectives. This is the complete wartime history of one of the largest German paratrooper regiments, 6th , from its initial formation in the spring of 1943 to its last day at the end of the war. With numerous firsthand accounts from key members, reporting on their experiences, they describe the events of 1943Ð45 vividly and without compromise. These accounts reveal previously unknown details about important operations in Italy, Russia, on the Normandy Front, Belgium, Holland, the last German Parachute drop in the Ardennes, and the final battle to the end in Germany. With over 220 original photographs, many from private collections and never before published, this book fully illustrates the men, their uniforms, equipment and weapons. Also included is an appendix with maps, battle calendar, staffing plans, a list of field and post-MOB-numbers, and the Knight's Cross recipients of the regiment. Having earned the respect of the Allied forces who fought against it during World War II, this work will inform current readers of the full record of FallschirmjŠger Regiment 6, and why the Allied advance into German-held Europe was so painstaking to achieve.

Night Drop

Night Drop
Author: Samuel Lyman Atwood Marshall
Publisher:
Total Pages: 335
Release: 1963
Genre: World War, 1939-1945
ISBN:

Whatever It Took

Whatever It Took
Author: Henry Langrehr
Publisher: HarperCollins
Total Pages: 278
Release: 2020-05-05
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0063027445

Published to mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day, an unforgettable never-before-told first-person account of World War II: the true story of an American paratrooper who survived D-Day, was captured and imprisoned in a Nazi work camp, and made a daring escape to freedom. Now at 95, one of the few living members of the Greatest Generation shares his experiences at last in one of the most remarkable World War II stories ever told. As the Allied Invasion of Normandy launched in the pre-dawn hours of June 6, 1944, Henry Langrehr, an American paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne, was among the thousands of Allies who parachuted into occupied France. Surviving heavy anti-aircraft fire, he crashed through the glass roof of a greenhouse in Sainte-Mère-Église. While many of the soldiers in his unit died, Henry and other surviving troops valiantly battled enemy tanks to a standstill. Then, on June 29th, Henry was captured by the Nazis. The next phase of his incredible journey was beginning. Kept for a week in the outer ring of a death camp, Henry witnessed the Nazis’ unspeakable brutality—the so-called Final Solution, with people marched to their deaths, their bodies discarded like cords of wood. Transported to a work camp, he endured horrors of his own when he was forced to live in unbelievable squalor and labor in a coal mine with other POWs. Knowing they would be worked to death, he and a friend made a desperate escape. When a German soldier cornered them in a barn, the friend was fatally shot; Henry struggled with the soldier, killing him and taking his gun. Perilously traveling westward toward Allied controlled land on foot, Henry faced the great ethical and moral dilemmas of war firsthand, needing to do whatever it took to survive. Finally, after two weeks behind enemy lines, he found an American unit and was rescued. Awaiting him at home was Arlene, who, like millions of other American women, went to work in factories and offices to build the armaments Henry and the Allies needed for victory. Whatever It Took is her story, too, bringing to life the hopes and fears of those on the homefront awaiting their loved ones to return. A tale of heroism, hope, and survival featuring 30 photographs, Whatever It Took is a timely reminder of the human cost of freedom and a tribute to unbreakable human courage and spirit in the darkest of times.

One Day in August

One Day in August
Author: David O'Keefe
Publisher: Icon Books
Total Pages: 409
Release: 2020-11-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 1785786318

'A lively and readable account' Spectator 'A fine book ... well-written and well-researched' Washington Times In less than six hours in August 1942, nearly 1,000 British, Canadian and American commandos died in the French port of Dieppe in an operation that for decades seemed to have no real purpose. Was it a dry-run for D-Day, or perhaps a gesture by the Allies to placate Stalin's impatience for a second front in the west? Historian David O'Keefe uses hitherto classified intelligence archives to prove that this catastrophic and apparently futile raid was in fact a mission, set up by Ian Fleming of British Naval Intelligence as part of a 'pinch' policy designed to capture material relating to the four-rotor Enigma Machine that would permit codebreakers like Alan Turing at Bletchley Park to turn the tide of the Second World War. 'A fast-paced and convincing book ... that clears up decades of misinformation about the ignoble raid' Toronto Star

First to Jump

First to Jump
Author: Jerome Preisler
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2015-09-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 0425265986

With firsthand accounts of WWII heroism from the US Army Pathfinders, New York Times bestselling author Jerome Priesler chronicles their escapades scouting behind enemy lines ahead of the Band of Brothers. “When you land in Normandy, you will have only one friend: God.” —General “Jumpin’” Jim Gavin to the Pathfinders of the 82nd and 101st Airborne divisions before D-Day, June 1944 When the invasion of Sicily almost ended in disaster, General Jim Gavin was determined to form a unit of special operations commandos who would jump ahead of the airborne forces—including the now legendary Easy Company—stealing across enemy terrain to scout and mark out drop zones with a unique array of homing equipment. The first into combat and the last out, their advance jumps were considered suicide missions by those who sent them into action. Sporting Mohawk haircuts and war paint, they were the best of the best. Their heroic feats behind enemy lines were critical to nearly all of the Allies’ major victories from Normandy to Bastogne—where they saved the day for thousands of American troops in an operation almost forgotten by history—to the attack on the Ruhr Valley in Germany. This is the story of the U.S. Army Pathfinders—their training, bonding, and battlefield exploits—told from the perspectives of the men who jumped, and those who risked everything to fly them into action. INCLUDES PHOTOS

Down to Earth

Down to Earth
Author: Martin K. A. Morgan
Publisher: Schiffer Publishing
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2004-06-22
Genre: World War, 1939-1945
ISBN: 9780764320118

In the early morning hours of D-Day, 2,004 paratroopers of the 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment jumped into Normandy as a part of the famous 82nd Airborne Division. After a widely scattered drop, the regiment then struggled in the marshes and hedgerows of the Cotentin Peninsula in battles at places with names like Chef-du-Pont, Cauquigny, La Fière and Graignes. During the regiment's time in Normandy, the hardships were many and the casualties were high. Out of the 2,004 men that jumped on June 6th, only 700 returned to England thirty-five days later. Down To Earth tells the story of those thirty-five days. Drawing on extensive oral history interviews with veterans of the regiment, Down To Earth focuses on the experiences of those who fought for the 507th during its baptism of fire. Complimenting the text, Down To Earth also features over 350 black and white and 100 color photographs, as well as detailed maps.

Paratrooper Generals

Paratrooper Generals
Author: Mitchell YOCKELSON
Publisher:
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2020
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780811738552

"Jumping into Normandy during the early hours of D-Day, Matthew Ridgway and Maxwell Taylor fought on the ground for six weeks of combat that cost the airborne divisions more than 40 percent casualties. This is the first book to explore in depth the significant role these two division commanders played on D-Day."--