The Making of a Paratrooper

The Making of a Paratrooper
Author: Kurt Gabel
Publisher:
Total Pages: 318
Release: 1990
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:

This is a memoir of paratrooper Kurt Gabel, a German Jew who emigrated to the US in 1938, joined the 513th Regiment of the 17th Airborne Division, and fought against his former countrymen in the Battle of the Bulge.

The Making of a Paratrooper

The Making of a Paratrooper
Author: Kurt Gabel
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2015-08-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 0700621377

The memoir of paratrooper Kurt Gabel—a German Jew who emigrated to the US in 1938, joined the 513th Regiment of the 17th Airborne Division, and fought against his former countrymen in the Battle of the Bulge. Gabel conveys with rare immediacy an in-depth look at the training of a paratrooper, the dangers of combat, and his transformation from romantic idealist to warrior. He vividly recounts the fire fights and such episodes as narrow escapes, separation from his battalion and his rescue by another, and the interrogation of prisoners. He tells the full story of his desperate hours on “Dead Man’s Ridge” near Bastogne.

Letters Home, a Paratrooper's Story

Letters Home, a Paratrooper's Story
Author: H. L. "Bud" Curtis
Publisher: Aardvark Global Publishing DBA Ecko Publishing
Total Pages: 282
Release: 2010
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781427650306

"H.L. "Bud" Curtis, 517th Parachute Regimental Combat Team (PRCT) 1943-1945"--Cover.

The Making of a Paratrooper

The Making of a Paratrooper
Author: Kurt Gabel
Publisher:
Total Pages: 320
Release: 1990
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:

This is a memoir of paratrooper Kurt Gabel, a German Jew who emigrated to the US in 1938, joined the 513th Regiment of the 17th Airborne Division, and fought against his former countrymen in the Battle of the Bulge.

US Army Paratrooper in the Pacific Theater 1943–45

US Army Paratrooper in the Pacific Theater 1943–45
Author: Gordon L. Rottman
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 152
Release: 2012-11-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 1780961316

The two major Army units that operated in the Pacific – the 11th Airborne Division and the 503rd Parachute Regimental Combat Team (PRCT) launched small-scale operations on extremely difficult, if not, outright dangerous, terrain, while also conducting amphibious assaults, fighting on jungled hills, swamps and mud. The two units were very different, with the 503rd PRCT being reserved for special purpose missions and the 11th Airborne Division occupying a more traditional role. This title will deal with the background to these two units and their training, before detailing the specific equipment used in the theatre and, finally and most importantly, the combat experience at a personal level of the US Army Paratrooper in the Pacific.

Paratrooper

Paratrooper
Author: Thomas Michael Booth
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2013
Genre: Generals
ISBN: 9781612001272

* A gripping account on an exceptional man - the life of Jim Gavin, America's best paratrooper leader throughout World War II World War II, which occurred precisely at the juncture between air transport capability and the invention of the helicopter, saw history's first and only mass use of paratroopers dropped into battle from the sky, perhaps the most courageous combat task seen in modern warfare. And "Jumpin' Jim" Gavin was by all accounts America's best paratrooper leader. His first combat jump was in Sicily, where as a battalion commander he found his men scattered all over the landscape in one of airborne's greatest fiascos. Yet his stand with a few stalwarts at Biazza Ridge is credited with saving the U.S. invasion front. In Normandy, as assistant division commander of the 82nd Airborne, he won the eternal affection of his men for continuing to lead in combat, M-1 slung over his shoulder, even as his paratroopers were similarly scattered and faced German fire on all sides. His cool leadership served to coalesce the paratrooper bridgehead behind enemy lines until infantry from the beaches could finally reach them. During Operation Market Garden, now as commander of the 82nd, Gavin wrote a new chapter in paratrooper heroism, seizing all his objectives despite a serious spinal injury on landing. With hardly a respite after the grueling campaign in Holland, Gavin and his men were called upon for perhaps their most dangerous task - stemming the German onslaught during the Battle of the Bulge. After the war Gavin continued to earn as much respect from policymakers as he had from his men, providing commentary on our Cold War stance, the war in Vietnam, and as Kennedy's ambassador to France. He was not an unflawed individual, as this comprehensive biography reveals, but an exceptional one in every sense, especially during his days of combat leadership during history's greatest war. ILLUSTRATIONS: 16 pages

Parachute Infantry

Parachute Infantry
Author: David Webster
Publisher: Dell
Total Pages: 474
Release: 2008-02-26
Genre: History
ISBN: 0440240905

David Kenyon Webster’s memoir is a clear-eyed, emotionally charged chronicle of youth, camaraderie, and the chaos of war. Relying on his own letters home and recollections he penned just after his discharge, Webster gives a first hand account of life in E Company, 101st Airborne Division, crafting a memoir that resonates with the immediacy of a gripping novel. From the beaches of Normandy to the blood-dimmed battlefields of Holland, here are acts of courage and cowardice, moments of irritating boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror, and pitched urban warfare. Offering a remarkable snapshot of what it was like to enter Germany in the last days of World War II, Webster presents a vivid, varied cast of young paratroopers from all walks of life, and unforgettable glimpses of enemy soldiers and hapless civilians caught up in the melee. Parachute Infantry is at once harsh and moving, boisterous and tragic, and stands today as an unsurpassed chronicle of war—how men fight it, survive it, and remember it.

The Chosen Few

The Chosen Few
Author: Gregg Zoroya
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Total Pages: 441
Release: 2017-02-14
Genre: History
ISBN: 0306824841

The never-before-told story of one of the most decorated units in the war in Afghanistan and its fifteen-month ordeal that culminated in the 2008 Battle of Wanat, the war's deadliest A single company of US paratroopers--calling themselves the "Chosen Few"--arrived in eastern Afghanistan in late 2007 hoping to win the hearts and minds of the remote mountain people and extend the Afghan government's reach into this wilderness. Instead, they spent the next fifteen months in a desperate struggle, living under almost continuous attack, forced into a slow and grinding withdrawal, and always outnumbered by Taliban fighters descending on them from all sides. Month after month, rocket-propelled grenades, rockets, and machine-gun fire poured down on the isolated and exposed paratroopers as America's focus and military resources shifted to Iraq. Just weeks before the paratroopers were to go home, they faced their last--and toughest--fight. Near the village of Wanat in Nuristan province, an estimated three hundred enemy fighters surrounded about fifty of the Chosen Few and others defending a partially finished combat base. Nine died and more than two dozen were wounded that day in July 2008, making it arguably the bloodiest battle of the war in Afghanistan. The Chosen Few would return home tempered by war. Two among them would receive the Medal of Honor. All of them would be forever changed.

Left for Dead at Nijmegen

Left for Dead at Nijmegen
Author: Marcus A. Nannini
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
Total Pages: 267
Release: 2019-05-09
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1612006973

This WWII biography chronicles an American paratrooper’s harrowing role in Operation Market Garden and his heroic survival as a POW. During World War II, Gene Metcalfe served in the 82nd Airborne. After his recruitment into the military at Camp Grant, he trained with the 501st Paratroop Infantry Regiment at Camp Toccoa. It wasn’t until D-Day that he first arrived in England to join the 508th PIR. On September 17th, 1944, the 508th PIR embarked on Operation Market Garden to establish a salient in the Netherlands. Flying over Groesbeek Heights, just outside of Nijmegen, Holland, Metcalfe was among the first to jump into what swas thought to be an empty meadow. Instead, it was defended by German antiaircraft cannons. As he jumped into a hail of bullets he watched his plane roll over and plummet into the ground. Badly injured by a shell explosion, Gene was listed as Killed In Action and left for dead by his patrol. He became a POW held outside Munich, moved between various dieses-ridden camps. After a nearly successful escape attempt—he was captured within sight of the Swiss mountains—Gene was liberated by American troops in 1945.

Airborne

Airborne
Author: Tim Moreman
Publisher: Osprey Publishing
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2007-07-24
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781846031960

Airborne warfare reached its peak during World War II - the only war in which the potential gains of using airborne tactics ever justified the great costs, both material and human. The revolutionary developments in tactics and equipment meant that whole divisions could now be inserted behind enemy lines to initiate surprise attacks. However, the risks taken by these brave soldiers, both Allied and Axis, cannot be overstated, with horrific losses suffered by both sides. This book gives an overview of airborne warfare during World War II, looking not at the German, American and British paratroopers involved in the war, covering their recruitment, training, tactics and battle conduct, and the battles they fought. Covering Operation Mercury - the German assault on the island of Crete in 1941 and the first strategic use of airborne forces in history - the tragic British attack on Arnhem in 1944 and the American airborne assault near Utah Beach on D-Day, this book traces the evolution of airborne warfare throughout the war and gives an insight into the experiences of the brave men who dropped into battle.