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Chargement... The Battle of the Bridges: The 504 Parachute Infantry Regiment in Operation Market Gardenpar Frank van Lunteren
   Aucun Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre.   theww2library | Feb 29, 2024 |  Dad didn't talk much about this campaign other than to say it was a very fearful thing. He mentioned that the river's water looked like heavy rain falling in it from the bullets striking it. Of the 26 boats in the first wave only eleven returned to pick up the second wave. What's especially good about this book is the use of first person recollections of the action from the drop on September 17 until the relief of the division in October. The author collected accounts from unit histories and the like, but he interviewed many surviving participants from 2002 to 2013. It is indeed fortunate that he did so as the number of living paratroopers rapidly declined throughout the decade. The maps are quite good, but like all military histories it's difficult to fully imagine the settings if one is not familiar with the terrain. This is why the troopers eyewitness accounts make this story so vivid. One certainly gets a full understanding at how incredibly brutal was this fight and a sense of the aggressiveness and bravery of the regiment. The author (a young Dutchman) has a second book on the 504th detailing its role in blocking the advance of the Germans in the Battle of the Bulge. I am looking forward to reading it. (  ) stevesmits | May 16, 2016 | aucune critique | ajouter une critique
Operation Market Garden has been recorded as a complete Allied failure in World War II, an overreach that resulted in an entire airborne division being destroyed at its apex. However, within that operation were episodes of heroism that still remain unsung. On September 17, 1944, the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, floated down across the Dutch countryside, in the midst of German forces, and proceeded to fight their way to vital bridges to enable the Allied offensive to go forward. The 101st Airborne was behind them; the British 1st Airborne was far advanced. In the 82nd's sector the crucial conduits needed to be seized. The Germans knew the importance of the bridge over the Waal River at Nijmegen as well as James Gavin and his 82nd troopers did. Thus began a desperate fight for the Americans to seize it, no matter what the cost. The Germans would not give, however, and fought tenaciously in the town and fortified the bridge. On September 20 Gavin turned his paratroopers into sailors and conducted a deadly daylight amphibious assault in small plywood and canvas craft across the Waal River to secure the north end of the highway bridge in Nijmegen. German machine guns and mortars boiled the water on the crossing, but somehow a number of paratroopers made it to the far bank. Their ferocity thence rolled up the German defenses, and by the end of day the bridge had fallen. This book draws on a plethora of previously unpublished sources to shed new light on the exploits of the "Devils in Baggy Pants" by Dutch author and historian Frank van Lunteren. A native of Arnhem the site of The Bridge too Far the author draws on nearly 130 interviews he personally conducted with veterans of the 504th, plus Dutch civilians and British and German soldiers, who here tell their story for the first time."--Book jacket. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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 Google Books — Chargement...GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)940.54219218History and Geography Europe Europe 1918- Military History Of World War II Campaigns and battles by theatre European theatreClassification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne: (4.25)
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