101st Books
Lots of the information I have acquired has come from actual physical books, not by watching 'Bandwagon of Brothers' or 'Shaving Mrs Ryan'. Not that I would ever claim to know everything or be an expert or any such shite like that! I simply know more than some and less than others! If I want to broaden my knowledge on any subject, I hunt out decent books and add them to my 'to read pile'... I love those books that really target specific subjects, rather than those that try and cover everything; second only to the biographies of those individual soldiers whose stories have been captured for all time in script. This page will be split into two sections and will cover some of the books that I have in my collection.
I know this is complicated and confusing to some, but this whole website is about re-enacting. These are tips on what books to purchase for that purpose only. So, if people like Bando get all butt hurt because I refer to him as the 'second most useful author in the world' and moronic collectors get all upset that my book doesn't explain the finer details of which paratrooper fought in each battle; that's probably because they can't understand the different between history books and books for re-enactors. Barely rocket science though is it...
However, simply put - if you want good books, you'll be paying a lot. The same as your kit: if you want cheap shit... it's out there and you can purchase loads of it. But is it any good... fuck no! To keep it simple, if you are doing:
101st in Normandy buy the three Carentan books by Michel de Trez
82nd in Normandy buy the Sainte Mere Eglise book by Michel de Trez
101st in Holland buy the two 'D-Day Minus 17 September 1944' & 'Orange is the Color of the Day' books by Michel de Trez
82nd in Holland buy the two 'Burning Bridges' & 'Bridges are ours' books by Michel de Trez
You can almost not bother with every other book! The photographic content in these is far superior to all others, and by using so many photographs, sometimes of the same soldiers from different angles, it gives a visual guide like no other. Someone in every 101st / 82nd group should own a set to help guide and advise the group. The only other book that stands out could be Michel de Trez 'American Paratrooper Helmets' book. Although not essential for getting a good helmet together, it can help and does contain photographs of some truly stunning helmets.
So basically... buy his books and ignore the rest and, no, I'm sadly not on commission. They really are the best by miles. (hence Mark Bando's books being second).
the rest
Reference
If you want a history book, great... if you want a book for re-enacting purposes, don't bother. Instead purchase Michel de Trez's Carentan books for Normandy and his four books on Market Garden for Holland. This one is a minute-by-minute and day-by-day account of the elite 101st Airborne’s daring parachute landing behind enemy lines at Normandy through the use of first-hand accounts from Airborne veterans and forty previously unknown colour photos of the “Screaming Eagles” at Normandy and in Great Britain prior to the invasion. Accompanying these remarkable D-Day colour Kodachromes — which were unearthed in the attic of an Army doctor’s daughter — are more than two hundred black-and-white photographs from 101st survivors and the author’s own private collection.
Just like the other Bando book above, a good history book. However, for re-enacting references, stick to the two de Trez books mentioned above.
The 101st Airborne Division ― the "Screaming Eagles" ― is a U.S. Army modular light infantry division trained for air assault operations. During World War II, it was renowned for its role in Operation Overlord―the D-Day landings starting 6 June 1944 in Normandy, France ― Operation Market Garden, the liberation of the Netherlands and action during the Battle of the Bulge around the city of Bastogne, Belgium.
The Pathfinders of the 101st Airborne Division led the way on D-Day in the night drop prior to the invasion. They left from RAF North Witham having trained there with the 82nd Airborne Division. The 101st Airborne Division's objectives were to secure the four causeway exits behind Utah Beach, destroy a German coastal artillery battery at Saint-Martin-de-Varreville, capture buildings nearby at Mesieres believed used as barracks and a command post for the artillery battery, capture the Douve River lock at la Barquette (opposite Carentan), capture two footbridges spanning the Douve at la Porte opposite Brevands, destroy the highway bridges over the Douve at Sainte-Come-du-Mont, and secure the Douve River valley. In the process units also disrupted German communications, established roadblocks to hamper the movement of German reinforcements, established a defensive line between the beachhead and Volognes, cleared the area of the drop zones to the unit boundary at Les Forges, and linked up with the 82nd Airborne Division.
Spearheading D-Day: American Special Units in Normandy describes the months leading up to June 6, 1944 which were ones of intense preparation by the Allies. Specially trained USN and USMC amphibious troops cleared obstacles, organized the beachhead, and even set up a field hospital in the first hours of the invasion. Gawne 's detailed text covers every aspect of the organization, training, and active operations of these special D-Day units. Period color photographs and modern reconstructions show every aspect of the uniforms, insignia, weapons, and equipment of these elite troops
Very generic book (there are so many of this style of book). I call them the 'BBC books', as in, if you're simple enough to watch TV and turn on a WW2 documentary, this is the broad outlook you'll see in a typical program. The same photos, the same story... churned out over and over again, just the 'wrapper' changes... rarely the contents.
Not de Trez finest book, it's not massive, but does put you on the path to getting a good impression together.
American Warriors: Pictorial History of the American Paratroopers Prior to Normandy, is the first volume of a series covering the involvement of the American Paratroopers in the invasion of Europe. This series, written in both French and English, is the most complete pictorial coverage ever published, providing a unique illustrated insight into the operations fought by the famous American paratroopers on their way to liberate the fortress Europe. Contained in its 211 pages is the first striking pictorial record covering the paratrooper's preparation for Operation Overlord - including their training, their bases and their staging areas. Those days prior to the jump in history have been extremely well represented with nearly 300 superb, very clear, black & white and a few color period photographs, most of which have never been seen and/or published. It also includes many full color close-ups of what is believed to be the largest Airborne memorabilia collection, including many items recovered from the battlefield as well as veterans' uniforms and equipment.
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Absolute 100% BBC BOOK - one to avoid for re-enactment purposes.
This fully illustrated book details the planning of the airborne element of D-Day, and the execution of the plans until the troops were withdrawn to prepare for the next big airborne operation, Market Garden.
I know this page says it's about the 101st... but as the 82nd was created and saw combat before the 101st, this book covers their entire history and makes for an interesting, if not HUGE read. It's one monster of a book! However, it does really cover everything. Almost no photos, and what photos there are, are very small. However, the context of the text is excellent and worth battling through.
Biography
Donald R. Burgett (April 5, 1925 – March 23, 2017) was a writer and a former World War II paratrooper. He was among the Airborne troopers who landed in Normandy early on the morning of D-Day. He was a member of the 101st Airborne Division, ("The Screaming Eagles"), and the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment. Burgett served in Company A, 1st Battalion, 506th PIR as both a rifleman and a machine-gunner. His four-book anthology looks back at the nonstop, nightmarish fighting across body-strewn fields, over enemy-held hedgerows, through blown-out towns and devastated forests. This harrowing you-are-there chronicle captures a baptism by fire of a young Private Burgett, his comrades, and a new air-mobile fighting force that would become a legend of war.
CURRAHEE!
In June 1944, the Allies launched a massive amphibious invasion against Nazi-held France. But under the cover of darkness, a new breed of fighting man leapt from airplanes through a bullet-stitched, tracer-lit sky to go behind German lines. These were the Screaming Eagles of the newly formed 101st Airborne Division. Their job was to strike terror into the Nazi defenders, delay reinforcements, and kill any enemy soldiers they met. In the next seven days, the men of the 101st fought some of the most ferocious close-quarter combat in all of World War II.
THE ROAD TO ARNHEM
In a daring plan to end the war, the Screaming Eagles of the 101st Airborne jumped into the heart of Nazi-held Europe -- and began a journey into hell... In September 1944 -- sixteen weeks after the D-Day invasion -- British Field Marshal Montgomery unleashed a daring attack aimed at the heart of Nazi Germany. For the men of the Screaming Eagles of the 101st Airborne, including nineteen-year-old Donald Burgett, the plan meant parachuting in broad daylight into Holland, securing the road to the Rhine River, and helping the British cross into Germany. It was a mission that sent thousands of young men to their deaths.
In this electrifying memoir, Donald Burgett takes us into seventy-two days of close-quarter combat in foxholes and towns against brutal Panzer counterattacks and into the face of the feared German 88mm artillery as the Screaming Eagles push straight into the might of the German Army. Capturing the horror and confusion of war, as ally and enemy move within yards of each other, Burgett tells the story of a legendary fighting unit's bloody victory -- in an epic battle for "a bridge too far."
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SEVEN ROADS TO HELL
Writing with clarity and simplicity, Burgett takes his readers into the battlefields with him and his closest companions during the entire division’s campaign to keep Bastogne, Belgium out of Nazi Germany’s hands. From the time the 101st Airborne Division was called back into action on December 17, 1944, until they completed their mission one month later, they were thrown into one horrifically close and bloody battle after another. One sees clearly in microcosm what happened—in all its gruesome detail—to thousands of soldiers as they fought against staggering odds.
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BEYOND THE RHINE
"I was nineteen years old and now had three major campaigns under my belt. I had been wounded three different times, and, in seniority, was one of the oldest of the old men..."
In 1945 the paratroopers of the 101st Airborne came staggering out of the frozen killing fields of Bastogne. Tired, ragged, and hungry, the Screaming Eagles had proven their valor from D-day through horrendous battles in France, Holland, and Belgium. Now it was time for a lethal strike against the Nazis, and an all-out assault on Germany itself.
This powerful memoir chronicles the death throes of World War II in Europe as witnessed by a young soldier grown old before his time. From daring night raids behind enemy lines to river crossings and assaults on die-hard pockets of resistance, Burgett recounts acts of courage, cowardice, and anger in the face of a splintered, but still dangerous enemy. Most of all, Beyond the Rhine is an unforgettable portrait of war’s aftermath. For as the Screaming Eagles fought on through sniper-infested towns, through the Black Forest in Bavaria to Hitler’s famous mountaintop retreat, they would come face-to-face with the unspeakable horrors the Nazis left behind.
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As good a rifle company as any, Easy Company, 506th Airborne Division, U.S. Army, kept getting tough assignments -- responsible for everything from parachuting into France early D-Day morning to the capture of Hitler's Eagle's Nest at Berchtesgaden. In "Band of Brothers," Ambrose tells of the men in this brave unit who fought, went hungry, froze & died; a company that took 150% casualties & considered the Purple Heart a badge of office. Drawing on hours of interviews with survivors as well as the soldiers' journals & letters, Stephen Ambrose recounts the stories, often in the men's own words, of these American heroes.
On D-Day, Winters assumed leadership of the Band of Brothers when its commander was killed and led them through the Battle of the Bulge and into Germany — by which time nearly every member had been wounded. Based on Winters’ wartime diary, Beyond Band of Brothers also includes his comrades’ untold stories. Virtually none of this material appeared in Stephen Ambroses' Band of Brothers. Neither a protest against, nor a glamorization of, war, this is a moving memoir by the man who earned the love and respect of the men of Easy Company.
This is the riveting story of an ordinary man who became an extraordinary hero. After he enlisted in the army’s arduous new Airborne division, Winters’s natural combat leadership helped him rise through the ranks, but he was never far from his men. Decades later, Stephen E. Ambrose’' Band of Brothers made him famous around the world.
Full of never-before-published photographs, interviews, and Winters’s candid insights, Biggest Brother is the fascinating, inspirational story of a man who became a soldier, a leader, and a living testament to the valor of the human spirit — and of America.
William “Wild Bill” Guarnere and Edward “Babe” Heffron were among the first paratroopers of the U.S. Army — members of an elite unit of the 101st Airborne Division called Easy Company. The crack unit was called upon for every high-risk operation of the war, including D-Day, Operation Market Garden in Holland, the Battle of the Bulge, and the capture of Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest in Berchtesgaden.
In his own words, Guarnere gives a gripping account of D-Day from the paratrooper’s perspective. Both men vividly re-create dropping into Holland to capture the roads and bridges between Eindhoven and Arnhem, known as Hell’s Highway. Through much of 1944 both friends fought side by side —until Guarnere lost his right leg in the Battle of the Bulge and was sent home. Heffron went on to liberate slave labor and concentration camps and capture Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest hideout.
United by their experience, the two reconnected at the war’s end and were inseparable up until their deaths. Brothers in Battle, Best of Friends is a tribute to the lasting bond forged between comrades in arms under fire and to all the brave men who fought fearlessly for freedom.
This is the true story of a real-life hero. From his years as a two-sport UCLA star who played baseball with Jackie Robinson and football in the 1943 Rose Bowl, through his legendary post-World War II legal career as a prosecutor, in which he helped convict Sirhan Sirhan for the murder of Robert F. Kennedy, Buck Compton's story truly embodies the American Dream: college sports star, esteemed combat veteran, detective, attorney, judge.
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.
As a boy, Darrell “Shifty” Power’s goal was to become the best rifle shot he could be. His father trained him to listen to the woods, to “see” without his eyes. Little did Shifty know his finely-tuned skills would one day save his life— and the lives of his fellow paratroopers.
As one of the original men who trained at Camp Toccoa, Georgia, Shifty was one out of only two soldiers in Easy Company to initially earn the coveted expert marksman designation. He parachuted into France on D-day and fought for a month in Normandy; eighty days in Holland; thirty-nine in the harshly cold winter of Bastogne; and for nearly thirty more near Haguenau, France, and the Ruhr pocket in Germany.
Shifty’s War is a tale of heroism and adventure, of a soldier’s blood-filled days fighting his way from the shores of France to the heartland of Germany, and the epic story of how one man’s skills as a sharpshooter and engagingly unassuming personality propelled him to a life greater than he could have ever imagined.
Shifty’s War is one of my all-time favourite 101st books; this made me cry and is a fantastic read.
With an incredible World War II combat record that includes parachuting into Normandy on D-Day and service during Operation Market Garden, at Bastogne and in Germany itself, Ed Shames was involved in some of the most important battles of the war.
A member of the legendary Band of Brothers, Shames offers his own words and recollections that fuel a searing account, giving a soldier's glimpse into the ferocity of the fighting on the ground and the close fellowship that developed between the men in Easy Company. The first member of the 101st to enter Dachau concentration camp just days after its liberation, Shames ended the war in the bombed-out shell of Hitler's Eagle's Nest, surrounded by his comrades in arms.
This is the phenomenal story of a remarkable young lieutenant during World War II, from the grueling training at Toccoa right through to the eventual collapse of the Third Reich.
The exploits of the 3rd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment have long been overshadowed by those of Easy Company, 2nd Battalion. Yet the actions of the 3rd Battalion during the D-Day landings were every bit as incredible.
This is the astounding story of how, after suffering many immediate casualties on landing, the surviving paratroopers fought on towards their objective against horrendous odds.
Using fascinating first-hand accounts of the soldiers and the French civilians who witnessed the Normandy campaign, and illustrated with black and white photographs and maps throughout, the authors offer a unique and comprehensive account of the experiences of the 3rd Battalion from training through to D-Day and beyond.
“Womer reveals his inside account of fighting as a spearhead of the Screaming Eagles in Normandy, Holland, and the Battle of the Bulge.” — Tucson Citizen
In 2004, the world was first introduced to The Filthy Thirteen, a book describing the most notorious squad of fighting men in the 101st Airborne Division — and the inspiration for the movie The Dirty Dozen. Now, Jack Womer — one of the squad’s integral members and probably its best soldier — delivers his long-awaited memoir.
Originally a member of the 29th Rangers, which was suddenly dissolved, Womer asked for transfer to another elite unit, the Screaming Eagles, where room was found for him among the division’s most miscreant squad of brawlers, drunkards, and goof-offs.
Beginning on June 6, 1944, however, the Filthy Thirteen began proving themselves more a menace to the German Army than they had been to their own officers and the good people of England, embarking on a year of ferocious combat at the very tip of the Allied advance in Europe.
In this work, with the help of Stephen DeVito, Jack provides an amazingly frank look at close-quarters combat in Europe, as well as the almost surreal experience of Dust-Bowl–era GI’s entering country after country in their grapple with the Wehrmacht, finally ending up in Hitler’s mountaintop lair in Germany itself.
“Jack Womer’s story is entertaining, honest and forthright, just like the man. He does not shrink from describing what actually happened although occasionally one suspects just a hint of artistic license. However, there is nothing which is unbelievable given the chaotic and random nature of war.” — Army Rumour Service
What a disappointing book. Sorry to say it, but just don't bother adding it to the library.
Amazon doesn't even bother to give any information about the book! Simply saying "A 101st Airborne Division Machine Gunner at Bastogne". The book is filled with fluff. The actual wartime content finishes almost as quickly as it starts. Two-fifths are pre-war life, a fifth is in the army and another two-fifths after the war. Rather a disappointing purchase if I'm honest.
Robert Bowen found himself drafted into Company C, 401st Glider Infantry, 101st Airborne Division, as World War II broke out, and had his first experience of war as he stormed ashore on to the Normandy beaches. He was wounded during the Normandy campaign but went on to fight in Holland and the Ardennes before being captured — and mistreated — and finishing the war as a POW.
Written shortly after the war, Bowen's narrative is immediate, direct and compelling. His account, one of the few by a member of a glider regiment, is a brutal insight into the battlefields of World War II and a vivid recreation of just what life was like in an elite unit.
From the horror of D-Day and the despair of captivity to the taste of C Rations and the fear of soldiers under fire, this memoir tells the full story of one man's total war.
Hours before dawn on June 6, 1944, the American 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions dropped in Normandy behind Utah Beach. Their mission — to establish a firm foothold for the invading armies. What followed is one of the great and veritable stories of men at war. Although the Germans defenders were spread thin, the hedgerow terrain favored them; and the American successes when they eventually did come were bloody, sporadic, often accidental. As the threads of the operation entwine together, combat soldiers emerge as they really are... face-to-face with danger and with themselves.
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Seldom before have Americans at war been so starkly and candidly described, in both their cowardice and their courage. Brigadier General S.L.A. Marshall collected information for this volume via direct interviews with the men in the field within days after the action took place in June, 1944. His notes have served as the raw material for several histories, written by others, of the Normandy invasion. But now for the first time, Marshall himself reveals the successes, failures, courage and triumph of will that were offered buy these brave men who jumped into darkness.
“The 101st Airborne Division, which was activated on August 16, 1942, at Camp Claiborne, Louisiana, has no history, but it has a rendezvous with destiny…”
— Maj.-Gen. William Lee commanding officer 1942.
Rendezvous with Destiny: A History of the 101st Airborne Division, is unique among military histories. Never before has such a detailed study been made of the organization, training and operations of a single division of the United States Army. Each action in which the Division took part has been minutely studied and checked against available operations reports and the memories of the men who were there, from the beaches of Normandy to Hitler’s Berchtesgaden hideaway, the 101st Airborne fought their way across Nazi-Occupied Europe to Victory.
Not strictly 101st, but the best I've ever read at describing the experience of being a combat infantryman.
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Gerald Linderman has created a seamless and highly original social history, authoritatively recapturing the full experience of combat in World War II. Drawing on letters and diaries, memoirs and surveys, Linderman explores how ordinary frontline American soldiers prepared for battle, related to one another, conceived of the enemy, thought of home, and reacted to battle itself. He argues that the grim logic of protracted combat threatened soldiers not only with the loss of limbs and lives but with growing isolation from country and commanders and, ultimately, with psychological disintegration.
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Examining how Americans prepared for battle, how they treated each other, how they conceived of the enemy, how they thought of home, and how they reacted to battle itself, Linderman argues that ultimately, in both theatres, combat had its own grim logic, independent of causes and countries, flags and commanders.
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This study is an attempt to see WWII through the eyes of those American combat soldiers. It suggests how combat registers in their minds and memories; how so profound an experience impressed itself on their relationships with their enemies, their comrades, their commanders, and even their families; and how battle extracted its costs of them.
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Brave Men by Ernie Pyle
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Ernie Pyle in England by Ernie Pyle
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Here is Your War by Ernie Pyle
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Last Chapter by Ernie Pyle
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Ernie Pyle's War by James Tobin
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Inside The Battle Of The Bulge by Roscoe C. Blunt, Jr.
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Abridged version released as Foot Soldier​
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Up Front by Bill Mauldin
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Bill Mauldin's Army by Bill Mauldin
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Those Devils In Baggy Pants by Ross S. Carter
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To Hell And Back by Audie L. Murphy
Not 101st, but some great titles nonetheless: