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 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 ll in general. Hearing the soldiers speak is an entirely different experience from reading about the action in a narrative history.
Table of Contents
Foreword by Gerald J. Higgins, Major General, U.S. Army, Ret. Introduction
1. The Marshaling Area 2. The Pathfinders Lead the Way 3. The Flight Across 4. Bill Lee — Geronimo — Let’s Go! 5. Out of the Night Sky 6. Into the Midst of the Enemy 7. Early Encounters 8. Assembly 9. Johnson’s Regiment — The 501st 10. So Few Led By So Many 11. The Five–O–Deuce 12. The Scattered Artillerymen 13. The 506th Regiment 14. Hold Those Bridges! 15. The Glider Lifts 16. Angels of Mercy 17. At Day’s End 18. The French Were Waiting