Beyond the Rhine: A Screaming Eagle in Germany

Another excellant account about the WWII experience from someone who was there. A real tribute to the people that fought the war with Don Burgett and the 101st Airbourne Division.

This 4th installment in the story of Donald Burgett and the WWIIexperiences of the 101st Airborne Division is a fitting end to a fine combat memoir. The author picks up where he left off in "Seven Roads to Hell" in Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge and traces his experiences from crossing the Rhine River to the end of the war in Hitler's vacation resort in the Alps. Aside from his usual description of battle with the enemy, he also makes liberal use of noncombat scenarios during his unit's advances. His writings will be the standard against which future authors' wartime reminiscences will be compared. I highly recommend this book to all WWII history enthusiasts.

In what may be his last book, Donald Burgett has left us with insightful and chilling depictations of life in the 101st Airborne during World War Two. Entering the war as a teenager, readers of his books seem to grow with him, as well as being grateful for only being able to read about his exploits and not experience them.Beyond the Rhine is a more informational book than his other books. While battles still rage, the experiences of this book rely more on chasing the Germans down while the war quickly ends. What the book accomplishes is the thoughts of Burgett over the war, his maturity, and the realization of not only his readers but also themselves that the war is ending. The question "What's next?" seems to lie deep within the book's pages.In "Currahee", he brought to the horrors and chaos of Normandy, America's first full scale effort into Europe since WWI. In "Road to Arnhem", he brought us to Holland and the depressive defeat of the American and British troops to secure the keys bridges into Germany. In "Seven Roads to Hell", he brought us to Bastogne and the fear of entrapment when they were surrounded by Germans for weeks. Now, with "Beyond the Rhine", Burgett brings us to the wars end, and a trek through Germany that is filled with concentration camps, ruined towns, and fleeing German troops from the Soviets.I hope this isn't the end for his books, but if so, hats off to Mr. Burgett. I can't fathom any other books so honest about a young man's journey through World War Two from a American perspective.Mr. Burgett, you are the man.

Ironically, the more I read the works of Mr. Burgett, the more I understand, to his credit, that despite his direct presentation, it is all but impossible to have anything but the remotest idea of what it is like to be a front row participant in total war by reading a book. A book can certainly help one appreciate what he went through in Europe, but there's no way we can know what he now knows. I suppose you could have a better understanding of what it was like for him if you read the book in a hole half-filled with freezng water while someone tried to drop high explosives on your head. A common theme in all of Burgett's books is that there is much honor in what he and his brothers did, but no glory. The troopers in "Beyond the Rhine" follow a pattern familiar to those who have read Burgett's first 3 books. They are thrown into combat, lightly armed, before any other units, or where other units have failed. Men who are too young to vote, and who have only known one president their whole lives fight and die at the level of animals. The survivors count their blessings and assemble after battle to gather their garrison bags full of personal possessions only to learn that their bags have (as usual) been cut open and looted by the rear echelon troops tasked with storing and delivering the bags to the front. The most compelling chapter of the book describes what the author saw at the concentration camp at Landsberg. I finished the book feeling greatful that men like Mr. Burgett did what they did so that my kids will likely never have to. "Beyond the Rhine" is the final chapter in a story that is destined to become known as the finest first-person account of combat produced to date.

This book is the 4th in a series of books written by Mr. Burgett about his experiences as a paratrooper with the 101st Airborne Division in the European theater during World War II. I thoroughly enjoyed the first three and this one is a great read as well. For me, the book seemed to really pick up about halfway through and it was extremely hard to put down (I spent many nights reading it into the early morning hours). The focus of this book is the author's experiences in Germany. While he was there he was part of a group that liberated the Landsberg concentration camp. The things that he and his comrades saw there were horrific, to say the least. The starvation and torture of the inmates is described with a great deal of intensity. Yet not all of Mr. Burgett's experiences were terrible - one particularly encouraging story was of a 15-year-old Polish girl from a labor camp that was liberated. The author and his buddies befriended her and as she recovered from her imprisonment they could tangibly see one of the reasons why they were fighting. There's also an interesting story of the author's experiences with the Russian troops which was an entertaining cultural experience (sorry - no spoilers).Mr. Burgett also recounts the encounters with some recalcitrant German civilians who were defying curfews. He demonstrated his ability to maintain emotional control and quick thinking there as well as on an occasion when he and his buddies surprised some German troops in the mountains (Don and some of his fellow troopers were sent there to announce that the war was over and that any soldiers were to report to authorities in a nearby town). The author describes both incidents with such detail that one can easily visualize the seriousness of the situation.Two especially pointed personal encounters the author had with a German commander (a general of some sort) and with an SS trooper, each of whom were fleeing the Russians, ended in dramatically different fashions. They were great examples of the chaos and volatility of war.I could go on and on about the author's incredible experiences but I don't want to spoil anything.The book includes more than 15 pages of photographs (black and white) some of which are from the author's own collection . In addition, there are a few maps which help to trace where Mr. Burgett and his colleagues were sent.Finally, the author describes what he did after the war, both in Europe and in the United States. It helps to bring a sense of closure to the book.If you have read any of Don Burgett's previous works or if you enjoy books about World War II that are written by the people who lived the experiences firsthand, you will almost certainly love this one as well. I highly recommend this book!