ISBN 0-89141-681-1
195 pages

Foreword; Introduction; photos; maps; Afterword

Burgett, Donald R. The Road to Arnhem: A Screaming Eagle in Holland. Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1999

ISBN 0-89141-682-X
183 pages

Acknowledgments; photos; maps; Epilogue; Afterword

ISBN 0-89141-680-3
225 pages

Preface; photos; maps; Epilogue

Every veteran has a story to tell, and every one of those stories deserves to be told.

Unfortunately, it seems the ability to write clear, exciting, informative text occurs no more frequently in combat veterans than it does in the general population: of the thousands of first-person accounts by fighting men who survived World War II, far too many are poorly written, excruciatingly dull, and contribute little or nothing to our understanding of what the war was really like from the perspective of those who fought it. Nevertheless, new wartime memoirs roll off the presses daily, almost as though simply having worn a uniform during WWII ensures the author will be telling a rich and vibrant story much in demand by today's readers.

Thankfully for those who enjoy reading the reminiscences of fighting soldiers and sailors and Marines and airmen, occasionally an old GI delivers a brilliant gem that seems to shine with the unvarnished glare of combat, sacrifice, endurance, and sometimes even heroism.

Presidio Press this year has released three books by Donald R. Burgett which many readers will consider to be among the finest WWII combat memoirs ever published. As a paratrooper with the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st "Screaming Eagles" Airborne Division who jumped into battle in Normandy and Holland and defended the encircled town of Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge, he unquestionably owns the perfect combat credentials for telling the tale of what it was like to be an American soldier at war. Moreover, his fast-paced, pull-no-punches narratives immerse readers in the cold, hard, deadly reality of ground fighting in the dirt, mud, and snow of western Europe in 1944 and 1945.

The first of Burgett's books, originally published in 1967, begins with his passage through the enforced inhumanity of paratrooper training at Ft Benning in the summer and fall of 1943 where he observed at close range what happens to men when they hit the ground after falling from the sky with unopened chutes. Later, while he was temporarily out of action with an injured leg, almost everyone in Burgett's training group was killed in a plane crash. Those were the first but by no means the last losses of men close to him.

The author sailed to England with the 506th and underwent additional training there as well as preparation for Operation Overlord. His stick dropped at 1:14 am on 6 June 1944 with Burgett carrying in addition to his heavy load of authorized gear a .45 mailed to him by his father. A small group of mixed 101st and 82nd troopers gradually coalesced and wandered through the Norman countryside, eventually running into a firefight in an apple orchard and then a pitched battle with Americans and Germans facing each other in ditches separated by the width of a country lane. Burgett also managed not only to see a battleship shelling the French landscape, but to end up sitting almost on top of the Navy's target as the warship's shells plunged down around him.

As the paratroopers organized, Burgett joined up with an attack on Vierville. The paras were briefly driven back by the horse-mounted charge of Osttruppen cavalry. A long, bloody stretch of confusing close combat followed, with Burgett often lost amid the swirling fight. He and a few buddies ended up in the path of the retreating Germans and ambushed them with deadly results. At some point in this kaleidoscope of combat Burgett was wounded in the arm and evacuated by LST to England where he was patched up and returned to his old barracks in England, now empty, ready for more action.

Although written third, the second book chronologically finds Burgett discharged from the hospital and back with his buddies of the 506th -- newly returned from the continent -- in England in mid-July 1944. Following a brief leave, Burgett and the 506th resumed the regular routine of training and preparing for a new mission.

That mission came in September-- Operation Market-Garden. On 17 September they loaded aboard their C-47s wearing new and unfamiliar parachute harnesses. Flying in daylight, unlike the Overlord operation, the transports took heavy AA fire on the way to the drop zones. Burgett's plane lost a chunk of its wing, but the pilot held her steady. Jumping from a higher altitude than usual, Burgett was nearly hit in mid-air by a crippled C-47 which then crashed below him, but he came down intact. One buddy on the way down lost the tip of his nose to a piece of flak.

Soon Burgett and his group were under fire from what he describes as "88's" which began killing and maiming his friends and comrades. The survivors overran the gun positions, but not before their objective, the bridge over the Wilhelmina Canal at Zon, was demolished. Thirty percent of Burgett's company became casualties, but they crossed the canal and kept going.

In Normandy the 506th stayed in combat for little more than a month before returning to England. This time, with the Allies desperate for infantry, they were not relieved until the middle of November. Although they didn't realize it, this time their respite would not last long.

After seventy-two days in the line following Market-Garden, the third book opens with the 506th in France -- severely shorthanded and missing many weapons -- resting, recuperating, and beginning to absorb replacements. At 2:30 am one morning in December, Burgett's sergeant rousted the troopers with the news that, ready or not, they were headed back into combat.

By late afternoon the 506th was moving out in commandeered trucks past mobs of retreating American soldiers, marching toward the threatened town of Bastogne, sleeping on the cold ground, then finally walking the five miles from Bastogne to Noville. Join Task Force Desobry, Burgett and his company promptly launched an attack against the Germans, only to be thrown back. Burgett was pursued across a field and into the streets of Noville by a Tiger tank apparently intent on chasing him rather than killing him. After three days of heavy fighting, Burgett's battalion withdrew from Noville by fighting through encircling German forces, only to find themselves isolated in Bastogne.

   A young hillbilly, one of our new replacements, was sitting close to the fire with us, calmly eating.
   "Did you know the Krauts have us completely surrounded?" I asked.
   "Yeah," the southerner drawled, taking another bite of food. "Them poor bastards."
   "What do you mean them poor bastards. We're the ones that are surrounded," I replied.
   "Yeah, but we can shoot in any direction and hit them. They can shoot in only one direction and hit us."
   We all laughed until we had tears in our eyes.

In snow and freezing weather, Burgett and his battered buddies held the surrounded town until the 4th Armored Division broke through to relieve them. Even then, just as in Holland, Burgett and the 506th remained in the line, still fighting as leg infantry and attacking to drive back the Germans who were now on the defensive. In the process Burgett lost many more buddies and had two rifles shot out of his hands. On 17 January, after a month of fighting during the Bulge, the 506th was finally relieved.

But it was not to be their last test of combat. The 506th's return to action and Burgett's final push to Berchtesgaden will be the subject of his fourth book.

Burgett was one of those rare individuals who landed in France on D-Day and remained with his unit -- except for a brief stint in the hospital -- through the end of the war. Not many GIs could boast they fought and survived their way through Normandy, Market-Garden, the Bulge, and Germany. His account of that action carries the ring of authenticity in the noise, confusion, and pain of battle.

From his description of the way human bodies bounce after hitting the ground when their parachutes fail to open, to his vision of dead Germans standing upright where they froze in the barbed wire, to his matter-of-fact account of a comrade who survives the loss of both legs and an arm in an explosion, these are not books for the squeamish.

But for those who want to learn about the horrible reality of war from someone who was there in the middle of it, someone who fought and killed and survived, all three of these books are strong medicine.

Available from online booksellers, local bookshops, or directly from the Presidio Press.

Thanks to Presidio for providing these review copies.