Parachute Infantry : An American Paratrooper's Memoir of D-Day and the Fall of the Third Reich

In a memoir of life as a paratrooper during World War II, the author draws on the letters he sent home and personal reminiscences to offer vivid portraits of his fellow soldiers and the harsh realities and tragedies of war.

In a fascinating memoir of life as a paratrooper during World War II, the author describes his career with the 101st Airborne Division, drawing on the letters he sent home during the war and personal reminiscences to offer vivid portraits of his fellow soldiers and the harsh realities and tragedies of war. Reprint.

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.


From the Trade Paperback edition.