Book I in the campaign history of the 504th Parachute Infantry
Regiment, Birth of a Regiment is an authoritative, action-packed
account of the 504th’s seminal role in Sicily and Italy, the
first two U.S. airborne drops in the European Theater of
Operations. Drawing on hundreds of eye-witness testimonies, Frank
van Lunteren puts readers at the scene of historic battles as
described in the words of the men who fought them. New archival
sources in English, German, and Italian further enrich the
narrative, along with fresh maps and previously unpublished
photographs from archival sources and the veterans’ private
collections. Activated in May 1942, the 504th Parachute Infantry
Regiment earned high praise for its very first mission when it
effected the first U.S. mass regimental combat jump of World War II
in the invasion of Sicily. According to German General Kurt
Student, “if it had not been for the Allied airborne forces
blocking the tanks of the Hermann Göring Division from reaching
the beachhead, that Division would have driven the initial seaborne
forces back into the sea.” Led by Col. Reuben Tucker, the 504th
subsequently dropped into the endangered Fifth U.S. Army beachhead
at Salerno; bitter fighting led to hard-won success at Altavilla
and Hill 424 and the regimental motto “Strike and Hold.” Birth
of a Regiment is the first book-length account of the birth of U.S.
airborne forces, and the first to fully capture the details,
danger, and crucial stakes of the initial 504th missions in the
unforgettable voices of the newly minted paratroopers who fought
the first Allied battles in the ETO up through the victorious entry
into Naples. These initial missions were all the more important, in
that they would determine future Allied strategy, planning, and
tactics. It is not to be forgotten that Sicily was a testing ground
for the Allied coalition: the first time an American army and a
British army, managed at the top by a unified Allied staff, would
undertake a major campaign. According to James M. Gavin, the
Commanding General of the 82nd ABD at the end of the war, who had
jumped into Sicily himself: “What was learned in that first
cooperative action affected the whole outcome of World War II.”
Personally interviewed by the author over a period of 20 years,
nearly 200 veterans of the 504th recount their remembrance of
combat, permitting readers of Birth of a Regiment to relive epic
battles of the ETO through the words of the very men who made
history. Participants include survivors and witnesses of the tragic
decimation of 23 aircraft and the death of 164 paratroopers and
crew when U.S. troops mistook them for the enemy and fired on their
planes as they flew into Sicily. Veterans recount the ferocious,
desperate battle at Biazzi Ridge, and the later regimental action
at the Salerno Beachhead, where the 504th crucially took Hill 424
after a night drop and seaborne landing. Having undisputedly proven
their prowess, Tucker’s troopers were chosen to spearhead the
Fifth Army drive into Naples. These dramatic, unforgettable
memories of the war provide new information from the foxhole view
on up, giving historians and lay readers alike fresh perspective on
the initial U.S. engagements in WWII and the difficult birth of
Allied airborne operations. The volume is enriched by new maps and
historic archival photos, including many previously unpublished
photos and provided by 504th veterans.
General
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