Download or read book Four Hours of Fury written by James M. Fenelon and published by Scribner. This book was released on 2020-05-12 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “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.
Download or read book Airborne Landing to Air Assault written by Nikolaos Theotokis and published by Pen and Sword Military. This book was released on 2020-07-30 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many books have been written about military parachuting, in particular about famous parachute operations like Crete and Arnhem in the Second World War and notable parachute units like the British Parachute Regiment and the US 101st Airborne Division, but no previous book has covered the entire history of the use of the parachute in warfare. That is why Nikolaos Theotokiss study is so valuable. He traces in vivid detail the development of parachuting over the last hundred years and describes how it became a standard tactic in twentieth-century conflicts. As well as depicting a series of historic parachute operations all over the world, he recognizes the role of airmen in the story, for they were the first to use the parachute in warfare when they jumped from crippled aeroplanes in combat conditions Adapting the parachute for military purposes occurred with extraordinary speed during the First World War and, by the time of the Second World War, it had become an established technique for special operations and offensive actions on a large scale. The range of parachute drops and parachute-led attacks was remarkable, and all the most dramatic examples from the world wars and lesser conflicts are recounted in this graphic and detailed study. The role played by parachute troops as elite infantry is also a vital part of the narrative, as is the way in which techniques of air assault have evolved since the 1970s.
Download or read book Night Drop written by Samuel Lyman Atwood Marshall and published by . This book was released on 1963 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Night Drop written by Samuel Lyman Atwood Marshall and published by Bantam Books. This book was released on 1962 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Detailed narrative of the military campaign.
Download or read book Airborne Operations in World War II European Theater written by John Cushman Warren and published by M A/A H Publishing. This book was released on 1956 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This monograph describes the planning and execution of airborne operations by the Army Air Forces in the European Theater during World War II. Intended to serve as a case history of large-scale airborne operations, it seeks to analyze and evaluate them as a basis for doctrine and for the benefit of future planners. Chapters are as follows: (1) The Airborne Invasion of Normandy - Plans and Preparations, including the COSSAC Phase, deployment and training, final preparations, and deception and diversion; (2) The Assault, including various paratroop and glider missions; (3) From Neptune to Market, which focuses on organizational changes, plans and campaigns during the Campaign in France, the planning of Operation Market, and preliminary support operations; (4) Market - The Airborne Invasion of Holland, which includes descriptions of operations in various sections of Holland; (5) Varsity - The Airborne Assault Across the Rhine, including planning, training, security measures, auxiliary air operations, and lift and initial operations of the British Airborne Division, American Paratroops, and American Glider Troops; and (6) Conclusions Regarding Large-Scale Airborne Operations.
Download or read book The Airborne in World War II written by Michael E. Haskew and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2017-08-01 with total page 435 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With one hundred and sixty photographs, maps, and illustrations, Michael E. Haskew's The Airborne in World War II is an accessible account of remarkable men and the battles that they fought. D-Day, Operation Market Garden, Battle of the Bulge—the US Airborne divisions were integral at all these major points in World War II. But they also played a significant role in North Africa, where they first saw action, and in Italy in 1943. Right on the tail of these planes, this expert history follows the airborne divisions from the redesignation and initial training of the 82nd in 1942 through to their final, momentous missions in the Pacific. Featuring the equipment, division structure, and uniforms, as well as first-hand accounts, this book is the true history popularized by such titles as Band of Brothers, A Bridge Too Far, and The Dirty Dozen.
Download or read book Evolution of Airborne Operations 1939 1945 written by Colonel Roy Stanley II USAF and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2015-10-30 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The development of air transport in the early 20th Century led military strategists to examine the concept of inserting light infantry at key points behind enemy lines by air landing and air drop. The Germans were first off-the-mark with assaults in Norway and at Eben Emael in 1940. Crete saw a larger scale attack but while ultimately victorious the cost of men and equipment involved deterred any further Axis operation. The Allies on the other hand developed the concept dramatically with the large scale operation HUSKY in Sicily. While only partially successful there was massive loss of life and aircraft airborne operations were a key, if relatively minor, element of Op OVERLORD The D-Day Invasion. The most famous airborne operation was the large scale but ill-fated MARKET GARDEN. Almost successful the Arnhem battle goes down as a heroic defeat. The culmination of WWII airborne operations was the multi-division Rhine Crossing VARSITY. Expert author and collector Roy Stanley traces the history of airborne landings in words and pictures.
Download or read book Arnhem written by Antony Beevor and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2018-05-17 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Sunday Times #1 Bestseller The great airborne battle for the bridges in 1944 by Britain's Number One bestselling historian and author of the classic Stalingrad 'Our greatest chronicler of the Second World War . . . his fans will love it' - Robert Fox, Evening Standard 'The eye for telling detail which we have come to expect from Antony Beevor. . . this time, though, he turns his brilliance as a military historian to a subject not just of defeat, but dunderhead stupidity' Daily Mail On 17 September 1944, General Kurt Student, the founder of Nazi Germany's parachute forces, heard the growing roar of aeroplane engines. He went out on to his balcony above the flat landscape of southern Holland to watch the air armada of Dakotas and gliders carrying the British 1st Airborne and the American 101st and 82nd Airborne divisions. He gazed up in envy at this massive demonstration of paratroop power. Operation Market Garden, the plan to end the war by capturing the bridges leading to the Lower Rhine and beyond, was a bold concept: the Americans thought it unusually bold for Field Marshal Montgomery. But could it ever have worked? The cost of failure was horrendous, above all for the Dutch, who risked everything to help. German reprisals were pitiless and cruel, and lasted until the end of the war. The British fascination with heroic failure has clouded the story of Arnhem in myths. Antony Beevor, using often overlooked sources from Dutch, British, American, Polish and German archives, has reconstructed the terrible reality of the fighting, which General Student himself called 'The Last German Victory'. Yet this book, written in Beevor's inimitable and gripping narrative style, is about much more than a single, dramatic battle. It looks into the very heart of war. 'In Beevor's hands, Arnhem becomes a study of national character' - Ben Macintyre, The Times 'Superb book, tirelessly researched and beautifully written' - Saul David, Daily Telegraph 'Complete mastery of both the story and the sources' - Keith Lowe, Literary Review 'Another masterwork from the most feted military historian of our time' - Jay Elwes, Prospect Magazine 'The analysis he has produced of the disaster is forensic' - Giles Milton, Sunday Times 'He is a master of his craft . . . we have here a definitive account' - Piers Paul Read, The Tablet
Download or read book Airborne Invasion Of Crete 1941 written by Anon and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2014-08-15 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fascinating story of the first major airborne operation in history, the swift, bloody tale of the Fallschirmjäger of the German Wehrmacht as they battled and won the battles to capture the island of Crete. The drama of Crete marks an epic in warfare. The concept of the operation was highly imaginative, daringly new. Combat elements drawn from Central Europe moved with precision into funnel shaped Greece. Here they re-formed, took shape as a balanced force, were given wings. The operation had the movement, rhythm, harmony of a master’s organ composition. On 20 May and succeeding days this force soared through space; its elements broke over Crete in thundering crescendos - all stops out. For the first time .in history airborne troops, supplied and supported, by air, landed in the face of an enemy, defeated him. For the first time an air force defeated a first-rate Navy, inflicted such staggering losses that the fleet was ordered back to Alexandria three days after the battle started.
Download or read book The Soviet Airborne Experience written by David M. Glantz and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 1984 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contents: The Prewar Experience; Evolution of Airborne Forces During World War II; Operational Employment: Vyaz'ma, January-February 1942; Operational Employment: Vyaz'ma, February-June 1942; Operational Employment: On the Dnepr, September 1943; Tactical Employment; The Postwar Years.
Download or read book Boots on the Ground written by Karl Zinsmeister and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2004-10-05 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Karl Zinsmeister's Boots on the Ground includes 32 color photographs taken by the author during the month he was embedded with the 82nd in Kuwait and Iraq. This is a riveting account of the war in Iraq moving north with the 82nd Airborne. Units of the 82nd depart Kuwait and convoy to Iraq's Tallil Air Base en route to night-and-day battles within the major city of Samawah and its intact bridges across the Euphrates. Boots on the Ground quickly becomes an action-filled microcosm of the new kinds of ultramodern war fighting showcased in the overall battle for Iraq. At the same time it remains specific to the daily travails of the soldiers. Karl Zinsmeister, a frontline reporter who traveled with the 82nd, vividly conveys the careful planning and technical wizardry that go into today's warfare, even local firefights, and he brings to life the constant air-ground interactions that are the great innovation of modern precision combat. What exactly does it feel like to travel with a spirited body of fighting men? To come under fire? To cope with the battlefield stresses of sleep-deprivation, and a steady diet of field rations for weeks on end? Readers of this day-to-day diary are left with not only a flashing sequence of strong mental images, but also a notion of the sounds and smells and physical sensations that make modern military action unforgettable. Ultimately, Boots on the Ground is a human story: a moving portrayal of the powerful bonds of affection, trust, fear, and dedication that bind real soldiers involved in battle. There are unexpected elements: The humor that bubbles up amidst dangerous fighting. The pathos of a badly wounded young boy. The affection openly exhibited by many American soldiers--love of country, love of family and hometown, love of each other. This is a true-life tale of superbly trained men in extraordinary circumstances, packed with concrete detail, often surpassing fiction for sheer drama.
Download or read book If Chaos Reigns written by Flint Whitlock and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2013-05-07 with total page 657 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A gem of a book that highlights the ‘fog of war’ as seen by American, British, and Canadian airborne units when they parachuted behind enemy lines.” —WWII History Magazine “Gentlemen, do not be daunted if chaos reigns; it undoubtedly will.” So said Brigadier S. James Hill, commanding officer of the British 3rd Parachute Brigade, in an address to his troops shortly before the launching of Operation Overlord—the D-Day invasion of Normandy. No more prophetic words were ever spoken, for chaos indeed reigned on that day, and many more that followed. Much has been written about the Allied invasion of France, but award-winning military historian Flint Whitlock has put together a unique package—the first history of the assault that concentrates exclusively on the activities of the American, British, and Canadian airborne forces that descended upon Normandy in the dark, pre-dawn hours of June 6, 1944. Landing into the midst of the unknown, the airborne troops found themselves fighting for their lives on every side in the very jaws of the German defenses, while striving to seize their own key objectives in advance of their seaborne comrades to come. Whitlock details the formation, recruitment, training, and deployment of the Allies’ parachute and glider troops. First-person accounts by veterans who were there—from paratroopers to glidermen to the pilots who flew them into the battle, as well as the commanders (Eisenhower, Taylor, Ridgway, Gavin, and more)—make for compelling, “you-are-there” reading. If Chaos Reigns is a fitting tribute to the men who rode the wind into battle and managed to pull victory out of confusion, chaos, and almost certain defeat.
Download or read book D Day 1944 2 written by Steven J. Zaloga and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2012-07-20 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A highly illustrated and detailed study of the Utah Beach & the US Airborne Landings. On their western flank, the Allied landings on D-Day combined a parachute drop by the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions with an amphibious assault on “Utah” Beach by the US 4th Infantry Division. The landings came ashore in the wrong place but met weaker German resistance as a result. The heaviest fighting took place inland where the badly scattered paratroopers gradually gathered in small groups and made for their objectives. This book traces the story of D-Day on Utah beach, revealing how the infantry pushed inland and linked up with the Airborne troops in a beachhead five miles deep. Now the battle to break out and seize the key port of Cherbourg could begin.
Download or read book Airborne written by Tom Clancy and published by Penguin. This book was released on 1997-11-01 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: They are America's front lines--serving proudly in forward areas around the world. Representing the very best from the Army and Air Force, the Airborne Task Force is an unstoppable combination of manpower and firepower. Now, Tom Clancy examines this elite branch of our nation's armed forces. With pinpoint accuracy and a style more compelling than any fiction, the acclaimed author of Executive Orders delivers an fascinating account of the Airborne juggernaut--the people, the technology, and Airborne's mission in an ever-changing world...*Two Tom Clancy "mini-novels"--real world scenarios involving the airborne task force*Airborne's weapons of the 21st century, including the Javelin anti-tank missile, the fiber-optically guided N-LOS fire support system, and the Joint Strike Fighter*18 weeks: Life in an Airborne Alert Brigade*Exclusive photographs, illustrations, and diagramsPLUS: An in-depth interview with the incoming commander of the 18th Airborne Corps, General John Keen
Download or read book Assault from the Sky written by John S. Weeks and published by . This book was released on 1988 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Crete 1941 written by Peter Antill and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2012-11-20 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Operation Mercury, the German airborne assault on the island of Crete in May 1941, was the first strategic use of airborne forces in history. The assault began on 20 May, with landings near the island's key airports, and reinforcements the next day allowed the German forces to capture one end of the runway at Maleme. By 24 May, the Germans were being reinforced by air on a huge scale and on 1 June Crete surrendered. This book describes how desperately close the battle had been and explains how German losses so shocked the Führer that he never again authorised a major airborne operation.
Download or read book D Day Invasion written by iMinds and published by iMinds Pty Ltd. This book was released on 2014-05-14 with total page 6 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story behind D-Day begins in 1939 when Nazi Germany, led by Adolf Hitler, attacked Poland and ignited World War Two. The following year, the Germans occupied France and Western Europe and launched a vicious air war against Britain. In 1941, they invaded the Soviet Union. Seemingly unstoppable, the Nazis now held virtually all of Europe. They imposed a ruthless system of control and unleashed the horror of the Holocaust. However, by 1943, the tide had begun to turn in favor of the Allies, the forces opposed to Germany. In the east, despite huge losses, the Soviets began to force the Germans back.
